Jonathan Rea ends 24-race winless run with emphatic World Superbike victory at Phillip Island

The six-time champion had been on his longest run without winning a race since joining Kawasaki in 2015, going 24 races since he last triumphed at Estoril in Portugal in May.

Rea, who qualified second fastest, was in the lead group in the wet conditions with his Kawasaki team-mate Alex Lowes, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha) and pole man and new champion Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) when he decided to pit on lap 10 to make the switch to slick tyres.

He re-joined the race in fourth place behind a number for riders who stayed out on wets but the Ulsterman made his move for the lead on lap 15, overtaking Kyle Smith (Pedercini Kawasaki) at the Turn 4 hairpin.

Rea then maintained a comfortable advantage over Razgatlioglu, who pitted on the same lap as the Kawasaki rider, until the finish, wrapping up his 118th World Superbike victory by 6.2s at the final round of the 2022 championship.

Lowes finished third ahead of Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha), with Bautista and Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) completing the top six. Eugene Laverty was 18th.

Rea has now won double the races of former four-time champion Carl Fogarty, who is second on the all-time winners’ list with 59 victories.

Rea said: “We knew to expect anything today so we had a plan to cover all bases, and then it was about me being calm on the bike and not making silly decisions.

“Alex came through with a really good pace and at that point I said, ‘OK, roll the dice and let’s go to the pits.’ I didn’t think it was a risky move, but I probably could have gone in a lap earlier than I did.

“After we re-joined I was just riding to my pit board. This was a real team win today. I think we completely nailed the pitstop and didn’t lose one second.”

Sunday’s races are scheduled to take place at 02:00 GMT and 05:00 GMT.