Podiums For Rea And Sykes At The Final Round Of The Year

Jonathan Rea (KRT) ended his championship winning WorldSBK campaign with a second place and then his first DNF of an almost perfect season, finishing up with a final championship winning advantage of 132 points. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) scored two third places today to end his season in overall third place.

Under floodlights at the 5.380km circuit in Qatar Rea looked set to challenge for the opening race win all the way after he got into a personal battle with eventual winner Jordi Torres (Aprilia). He missed his target by only 0.726 seconds after 17 intense laps, attempting several passes on the final laps.

In race two Jonathan had his first technical issue this season and was forced to stop after a few laps, having been in a leading position once again and looking at recording another victory to add to his impressive haul this year.

For Sykes, the Losail Superpole winner once again on Saturday, a small issue in race one prevented him from maximising his potential but he still rode cleverly and quickly to record a third place finish.

Tom took a second podium place, once again in third, in race two, finishing only 0.388 seconds from the win. It left Sykes in third place overall at the end of a 13-round series.

It has been a remarkable season for the entire KRT squad and the Ninja ZX-10R. Of the 26 individual races run in 2015, Rea won 14 and Sykes four, with Kawasaki also winning the Manufacturers’ Championship for the first time.

Jonathan Rea said:

“I gave 200% in race one and I can’t thank my guys enough because they worked hard to give me a really good bike. When Torres came past I made a really big effort to stay with him. Race two was a frustrating way to end the year but we have to be clever and look back at the amazing season we had, with so many race wins, and taking the championship. I wanted to win again in race two and we were doing enough in the beginning to manage our tyres better than the others. I am just a bit gutted that I missed out on the second race because it looked like a fun race to be part of! I would have liked the battle.”

Tom Sykes said:

“There was too big a gap to bridge after the previous rounds in trying to take second place overall. In race one today the traction control turned itself all the way up to full and the power was being turned down so that explains why I was losing ground. I tried to compensate but in race two were we close to where we needed to be. The two guys in front made an incredible race, passing each other so close but still able to maintain a lap time. I have to be happy with the third place result, and only being three-tenths of a second off the win, on a circuit that is not my best. That is a big positive to take into the winter.”

David Salom (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) was eighth in race one at Losail, and then ninth in race two, to finish his season in 14th place. Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) had two DNFs today and ended his season overall 15th.

Source: Podiums For Rea And Sykes At The Final Round Of The Year