Source: Supplied.

The penultimate Race of the 2016 Motul Superbike World Championship got off to a shining start under the stars and floodlights of the Losail International Circuit.

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) won the race in dominant style with a 3.9-second margin over the newly-crowned 2016 world champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team).

The Northern Irishman wrapped up his second consecutive title with a stunning second place finish at the desert circuit and now joins the ranks of Carl Fogarty, Fred Merkel and Doug Polen as a consecutive WorldSBK championship winner.

Davies got off to a flying start, leading into the first corner with Nicky Hayden (Honda World Superbike Team) overtaking Rea on entry to turn one. Rea was quick to fight back and retook his position in second, with his sights set on Davies in first.

Championship contender Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) didn’t get his best start, after an uncharacteristically bad qualifying in fifth saw him only make up one place at the beginning of the race.

By lap three, the struggling Yorkshireman was overtaken by Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and dropped back to fifth as his title chances melted away as he fell behind.

Guintoli’s incredible pace didn’t falter as he pushed ahead to hunt down Hayden who was sitting third and by lap eight the Frenchman got into third, to settle into Yamaha’s maiden podium position finish.

Sykes found pace a little too late in the race and overtook Hayden on the closing laps to take fourth place with the latter in fifth. Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Team) finished in sixth with Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) ending race one in seventh.

Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) came home in eighth, ahead of Michael van der Mark (Honda World Superbike Team) in ninth. Lorenzo Savadori (IodaRacing Team) finished in 10th with Leon Haslam (Pedercini Racing) coming in close behind in 11th. H

aslam had a great start, finishing the first lap in 11th from 16th on the grid and continued progressing to fight in top 10 on the following lap, before finally dropping back again to his finishing position.

2016 STK1000 Cup winner Raffaele De Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) had a positive second WorldSBK outing of the season with a P12 finish, while Alex De Angelis (IodaRacing Team) locked out P13. Roman Ramos (Team GOELEVEN) and Josh Brookes (Milwaukee BMW) picked up the last points in 14th and 15th.

Luke Stapleford (Profile Racing) turned his Friday fortunes around to take pole position on Saturday for his first time, after graduating from Tissot-Superpole 1 earlier in the evening. The Brit finished 17th overall on Friday and was able to completely turn things around in the second session.

Reigning champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) qualified in second, while his teammate Randy Krummenacher finished in third, after having also set the fastest pace on Friday.