Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea finished as runner-up in last Sunday evening’s final World Superbike race of the season at Losail in Qatar, securing third place in the championship, as French rider Sylvain Guintoli took the title with a double race victory. Rea had finished in fourth place in the first 17-lap outing under floodlights at the 5.380km Losail International Circuit after a blistering start on his Pata Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP from seventh place on the grid.

 In race two, Rea got another great launch off the grid and led the race in the early stages before dropping back to third. However, knowing that he had to fight for every available point, Rea got back past outgoing champion Tom Sykes to finish three seconds behind Guintoli and take third place in the series by a single point from Marco Melandri.

Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam finished race one in 11th place after struggling with the front end throughout the 17 laps, but the British ace had to fight even harder for tenth place in race two.
 After a good start from sixth place on the grid, the 31-year-old was forced off the track at the first corner by Frenchman Loris Baz and had to recover from last position. His hard-fought finish leaves Haslam seventh overall in the final points standings.

Jonathan Rea: “I’m really, really happy and what a way to finish the season here in Qatar under the lights. With the atmosphere here, hanging around the hotel pool during the day, it just makes me realise how lucky I am to have this amazing job and to be here. I just want to thank my team for putting their best efforts in this year - they gave me a bike that I could really enjoy riding and we’ve developed the CBR a lot through the year. And at the end of the season I was really happy to finish a lot on the podium and to take back third in the championship. I’m really happy for that and it sets me up for next season in a really good way.”

Leon Haslam: “At the start of race two, Baz was going to wipe about five riders out and he came right across me. I had to lift up because he was going to hit me and we both went off the track. Coming through from last place to tenth wasn’t the best way to finish the season but we certainly made some good changes to the bike from race one to race two. We should probably have opted for the softer tyre like everyone else and I ended up in a bit of a lonely race in tenth for the last few laps. But it was fun coming through the field in the first part of the race and we secured seventh in the championship which was the main thing. The results have been a little disappointing but I think we’ve all worked really well this weekend and just had a bit of bad luck.”