exception of Davies—Bautista was
already ahead and in second,
chasing Rea in the early laps.
In the final analysis of the
championship there has to be an
even greater appreciation of the
abilities of five-time championship
winners Rea, KRT and Kawasaki,
but also a mystery that may never
be solved.
How do you turn around a
massive points lead for the
clearly most powerful bike in the
paddock into a gigantic loss by
season's end?
That, as much as Rea and com-
pany's repeating brilliance, is the
final story of 2019 in WorldSBK.
WorldSSP
The tension in the runup to the
WorldSSP finale—the only real
last-round finale of 2019 inside
the WorldSBK paddock—was
palpable long before a sudden
change of race starting time, to
avoid a threatening thunderstorm
that never actually materialized.
With the riders setting off with
one hour less preparation, it was
already thrilling to have the two
main championship rivals, Randy
Krummenacher and Federico Car-
icasulo (both Bardahl Evan. Bros
Yamaha) alongside each other on
the grid. "Carica" had pole, and
"Krummi" second place.
Off the line, Jules Cluzel
(GMT94) and his teammate Coren-
tin Perolari blitzed to the leading
two places, stunning all who
watched; Krummenacher then got
to third and Caricasulo was down
in sixth after just one lap.
Perolari would drop to sixth,
but with Caricasulo fourth, fifth-
placed Krummenacher would win
the title by six points.
"It's an incredible feeling to be
world champion, after working
towards this moment for the past
24 years," said Krummenacher. "I
can't really take it in at the mo-
ment. Today it was a very tough
race. After the warm-up I thought
I could win today, but in the race,
I felt completely different on the
bike and I had to fight. In the last
laps the feeling was very strong
that I was about to win the cham-
pionship, which was also pretty
stressful, which meant I wasn't as
fast as I could have been in the
closing stages."
Krummenacher won four races
and had four other podium visits.
In the race itself, Lucas Ma-
hias (Kawasaki Puccetti) won his
second of 2019, his second for
Kawasaki, and his third straight
victory in Qatar, despite suffering
from a stomach bug and some
degree of dehydration.
He looked like a pale shadow
but rode like the desert wind on
a bike not quite as powerful or
modern in race trim as a Yamaha.
Second in the race was Cluzel,
third—again, and for the third po-
dium in a row—Isaac Vinales.
In the championship Krumme-
nacher finished with 213 points,
Caricasulo 207, Cluzel 200 and
Mahias 168.
Gordon Ritchie
IN
THE
WIND
P46
Randy Krummenacher
played it safe,
crossing the line fifth
for the title.