--- title: "Davies wins shortened final race of 2016" canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2016/10/30/davies-wins-shortened-final-race-2016/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "Lewis Duncan" section: "SBK" published: "2016-10-30T19:42:33Z" modified: "2016-10-31T14:26:44Z" --- # Davies wins shortened final race of 2016 Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies took the final victory in a shortened final race of the 2016 season but misses out on second in the championship to Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes. KRT’s Jonathan Rea took the holeshot into Turn 1, staving off a lunge from Davies in the process, to begin his first race as 2016 World Champion in the lead. However, Davies didn’t allow that to last for long and scythed past into the penultimate corner. Things went from bad to worse for the Kawasaki rider, as he out-braked himself into the first corner at the start of the second lap and plummeted down the order to 13th. This gave Davies a comfortable one second gap at the front, but with Tom Sykes moving ahead of Sylvain Guintoli for second the Welshman would not move into second in the standings. Sykes was able to edge away slightly from Guintoli, whilst Davies continued to extend his lead to nearly two seconds. Behind them Rea had recovered several positions and was now embroiled in the battle for the top 10. The Northern Irishman moved ahead of Honda’s Michael van der Mark for ninth with 11 laps to go and set about hunting down Pedercini Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam in eighth. Rea’s charge was halted on lap eight when the red flag was flown for an incident at Turn 1. Home hero Saeed Al Sulaiti’s engine expired on the run down to the first corner and oil was dropped onto the racing line. The race was shortened to 10 laps with the grid order based on the standings after lap seven. > Twitter: Clean up is underway for the quick race restart > > \#QatarWorldSBK https://t.co/CVtkmKUF5p (@WorldSBK) Disappointed that his lead was wiped out because of the stoppage, Davies got his head down at the second launch and blasted into the lead whilst Haslam moved up to third. Sykes slotted into second with Rea sixth after being sat up by Alex de Angelis at Turn 2. Rea wasted no time in getting back into the podium places, passing Guintoli and then Haslam in the space of a few corners on the second lap. The Northern Irishman broke the lap record twice as he hunted down teammate Sykes in second, muscling his way past the Yorkshireman at Turn 10 on the fifth lap. Rea reeled in Davies over the next four laps and got to within three tenths of a second of the Ducati rider. But the Kawasaki rider gave up his chase on the final lap in order to allow Sykes back through, this giving second in the standings back to the 2013 Champion. > Twitter: Team work makes the dream work > > @KRT\_WorldSBK team-mates celebrate securing 1-2 in the #WorldSBK Championship ![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2/svg/1f389.svg) https://t.co/uuEkZUMdos (@WorldSBK) With the KRT duo swapping positions on the last lap, Davies was free to cruise to his 11th win of the season and complete the double for the third event in a row. Sykes and Rea completed the podium, with Pata Yamaha’s Sylvain Guintoli ending his difficult 2016 on a high in fourth. Haslam ended his only WorldSBK appearance this season in a fine fifth ahead of Althea BMW’s Jordi Torres. Honda’s Nicky Hayden was the big beneficiary from the red flag. The American was forced to start from pit lane as punishment for exceeding his engine allocation, but the stoppage allowed him to restart from 15th and grabbed the opportunity with both hands to salvage seventh. Xavi Fores was eighth from Raffaele de Roda and Alex Lowes. Michael van der Mark was just outside of the top 10 in 11th, whilst Lorenzo Savadori was best placed Ioda Aprilia in 12th ahead of Leon Camier, who had to start from the back of the grid for the second race after his bike stalled just prior to the warm up lap. Roman Ramos and Markus Reiterberger took the last points of 2016. Alex de Angelis and Karel Abraham dropped out of the restarted race, whilst Josh Brookes crashed on lap six of the original race to end a dismal day in what has been a tough season for the Milwaukee BMW team. Davide Giugliano’s final Ducati outing was cut short by injury, and he was forced to watch the action unfold from pit lane. ![2016-10-30-2](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2016/10/2016-10-30-2-904x479.png)