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It's over! The 2019 season of the World Superbike Championship has just concluded with the last race of the year at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, and it has done so with another triplet of the unstoppable Jonathan Rea that adds 17 victories in a year, equaling the record of victories in a season.
In the last race of the season Alvaro Bautista He has tried everything to stop the five-time world champion, but the Talaverano has finally had to settle for third position behind Chaz davies, closing his stage with Ducati.
Relentless: Jonathan Rea always has something in store
In the Superpole Race the script continued on schedule. An unflappable Jonathan Rea He came off the pole immaculately to take first place ahead of Alex Lowes, Leon Haslam and an Álvaro Bautista who made a great start to take fourth position behind the second Kawasaki.
As Rea began to set her pace, Bautista had to wait for the long straight from Qatar to pass a Haslam who did not let him put the Ducati in the cornering area. Once on the home straight, the Panigale V4 R deployed all its artillery to scorch the Kawasaki ZX-10RR. And start over.
According to Bautista he placed in third place, he got behind the wheel of a Lowes already without contact on Rea. For almost an entire lap, Bautista had to endure behind the Yamaha, but this time he did not wait for the straight, overtaking Lowes at turn six. At that time, Rea's difference over Bautista was already almost 2 seconds in just a couple of laps.
The talaverano tried to reduce Rea's advantage, but the Northern Irishman is an expert in managing the pace of the race. Rea crossed in complete solitude under the checkered flag with Bautista second and Lowes third. With this new victory, Jonathan Rea accumulates a total of 33 podiums and 16 victories in Superbikes, remaining just one race away from surpassing Álvaro Bautista as the rider with the most victories of 2019.
At the start of the last race of the year Rea and Bautista came out perfect again, with Bautista passing Rea but slipping into Turn 1 and leaving the door open for Rea. Behind the Ducati with number 19 Lowes and Haslam were placed again, with van der Mark in fifth position.
From the first turn, Rea again imposed his enormous level with an implacable pace, although Bautista placed closer than ever this weekend he waited for the first step across the finish line to pass the Northern Irishman. Bautista's leadership was short-lived because Rea was not going to let the 19 go, so he went on the attack with a strong counterattack.
The fight between the two reached contact, eventually dislodging Bautista and leaving Baptist at the mercy of a Lowes which he had to get rid of quickly. With Rea first and Bautista second, Toprak Razgatlioglu began to regain positions, leaving us an electrifying melee against Lowes.
Bautista had to suffer to regain Rea's aspiration, with both rolling 6 tenths apart and distancing themselves from the chasing group. Both stood out and Bautista contacted the Kawasaki, but behind the fastest rider was Chaz Davies who gradually progressed to form a trio.
With nine laps to go, Bautista overtook Rea over the finish line but at turn 6 a very aggressive Rea put his bike into Bautista again. The talaverano did not settle for second place and tried to put pressure the five-time world champion.
Two laps later Rea made it clear that she was saving something because the Kawasaki with the number 1 number surpassed the barrier of half a second of advantage. The champion broke the race pace going down to 1:57 highs and left Bautista standing at 1.7 seconds a lap later.
When he lost the reference, Bautista suffered a performance drop and the problems in his Ducati began to surface, with extreme braking rushes in which he suffered to put the Panigale V4 R in a curve, encouraging a Davies completely glued to his wheel that he just had to bide his time. A moment that came at Turn 15 with four laps to go.
Finally and although Bautista tried to fight for second place, Rea crossed the finish line completely alone and was escorted on the podium by Davies and Bautista. With this weekend's treble, Rea equals his own winning record with 17 wins, also equaling Doug Polen's 1991 record.
