The final round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship took place last Sunday at the Losail circuit in Qatar. As with the practice sessions of the previous two days, the final two races of the year also took place at night, under artificial lighting.

Following on from the results obtained in Saturday’s Superpole, the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team rider Ayrton Badovini lined up on the fifth row of the grid for today’s two 17-lap races.

In Race 1, which got underway at 7pm local time, Badovini made a good start and was able to make up several positions. Thanks to a consistent pace, the Italian rider continued to move through the field, to close in eleventh position.

In the second encounter, the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team rider again got away well from the fifth row, moving up into twelfth place. In the subsequent laps, Ayrton made up further positions to place ninth but a small error in the final stages meant that he crossed the line in tenth position.

Ayrton Badovini: “All in all the weekend’s gone fairly well. We had some problems at the start but then we gradually found a good set-up and, especially during the final free practice, we were able to sort some of the details out with the bike. I hoped to do a bit better in race 1, I was in a group of riders all very close to each other but conditions at the end were difficult and I was unable to make up positions. It was a pity for race 2 because I was doing well and could have reached sixth or seventh place but I made a mistake a few laps from the end and fell back from those ahead of me."