Jonathan Rea capped off his title-winning 2017 World Superbike season with his sixth double of the year to surpass the record of 552 points set by Colin Edwards in 2002 with 556.
Rea edged one clear of Troy Bayliss to go second on the all-time winners list after dominating the opening race at Losail, and needed to win on Saturday to secure the record for most points scored in a single WorldSBK campaign.
Starting from ninth, the Kawasaki rider made his way up to fourth on lap one, while Ducati’s Chaz Davies carved his way through to the lead after a daring pass on pole man Eugene Laverty on the outside of Turn 2.
By lap two Rea had taken second and was rapidly closing Davies’ one-second advantage, with the Ducati rider relinquishing the lead after surviving a huge highside exiting Turn 5 on lap four.
Twitter: A moment there for @chazdavies7
He manages to stay on the bike though
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Rea was able to put 1.1 second of daylight between himself and the Welshman, though Davies managed to halve that gap over the next few laps.
However, Davies’ challenge for a third Losail win soon faded and he came under pressure from the hard-charging Yamaha duo of Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes – both of whom crashing out of Friday’s race.
Davies was able to open up a slight advantage between himself and the Yamahas, who swapped places on lap 13, with Lowes pulling over a second clear over the next two laps.
Rea eased across the line for his 16th win of the year, while Davies shook off the advancing Yamahas to take second and secure the runner-up spot in the standings.
The Ducati rider held a slender 10-point advantage over Tom Sykes in the battle for second in the championship ahead of the last race, and sealed the position when the Kawasaki rider crashed out of third on lap three.
Lowes held off team-mate van der Mark for his fourth podium of the year, while Xavi Fores completed the top five on his Barni Ducati ahead of the factory Panigale of Marco Melandri.
Aprilia’s Laverty dropped out of podium contention in the early stages, and took the chequered flag in seventh after a late battle with Puccetti’s Sylvain Guintoli. Leon Camier and Roman Ramos rounded out the top 10.
Rafelle De Rosa was the sole BMW at the finish after team-mate Jordi Torres crashed heavily at Turn 5 in the early laps. De Rosa was 11th ahead of Jake Gagne, Alessandro Andreozzi, Ondrej Jezek and Roberto Rolfo.
Lorenzo Savadori was an early retirement due to a technical issue with his Milwaukee Aprilia, while Honda’s Davide Giugliano was forced to sit out the race due to illness.
