Guintoli wins, Sykes takes three point lead into finale

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• Sylvain Guintoli does exactly what he needs to do to claim a potentially pivotal fourth win of the season
• Tom Sykes slips to a low of fifth place before fighting back to third position in closing stages
• Loris Baz is ordered to move over on final lap but controversially fails to yield his second place

The 2014 World Superbike Championship will come down to a thrilling final race showdown in Qatar after a timely win for Sylvain Guintoli and a third place finish for Tom Sykes saw the points' margin reduced to just three points.

Guintoli stalked his way into contention before pouncing on long-time leader Loris Baz with four laps of the race remaining, the Frenchman easing to crucial fourth win of the season.

By contrast, Sykes would endure an eventful race, slipping as low as fifth at one stage, only to claw his way back to third position ahead of the final lap, with only Guintoli and Loris Baz in front. However, though Baz was ordered to move aside for his team-mate, he wouldn't cede his second place, ensuring the final race will come down to a direct head-to-head.

An absorbing race that would come alive in the closing stages, Sykes got the best start from pole position, but would be pushed aside by the end of the first lap by Jonathan Rea, before Baz got the jump on both of them coming into the first turn at the end of the home straight.

From here, Baz powered into a comfortable advantage over Rea, with Sykes slipping into the clutches of title rival Guintoli. Taking advantage of the Aprilia's superior straight line pace, Guintoli completed his crucial pass on Sykes down the home straight on lap five and set off in pursuit of the leaders.

With the top three pulling away from Sykes, Guintoli steadily worked his way up to second place Rea, planting a move on him on lap nine to begin chasing Baz up front.

With Guintoli progressing, Sykes was beginning to apply pressure on a fading Rea in front, but would also find himself with the unwanted attentions of Marco Melandri, the Italian enjoying a stronger race than he had shown during the timed sessions.

With the potential to make a big difference to team-mate Guintoli's title challenge, Melandri swiftly made his presence felt with an aggressive pass into fourth on lap 13.

With Aprilia on the up, the title battle would be almost turned on its head in that lap alone when Guintoli completed his pass on Baz down the home straight. It meant, at this stage, Guintoli now provisionally led the standings over fifth place Sykes.

With Guintoli going on to establish a comfortable advantage over Baz, attention was on Sykes to see whether he could respond, the defending champion duly doing as much with a similarly aggressive re-pass on Melandri, before finally squeezing past Rea at the start of the penultimate lap too.

With Melandri trailing off, Rea - who is expected to partner Sykes next year at Kawasaki - would keep Sykes honest heading into the final lap, only for a mistake to see his hopes of getting third back end there.

Further up the road, meanwhile, Baz had been given the expected order by Kawasaki to move over to allow Sykes into second place, a change of position that would have seen the Englishman head into the final race with a seven point advantage over Guintoli.

However, unexpectedly, Baz - who did follow team order in Magny-Cours - would not yield, the Frenchman holding firm to cross the line in second place, leaving Sykes a very disgruntled third.

It means, with Guintoli taking the full haul of points, Sykes' advantage at the head of the field has been reduced to just three points, setting up a thrilling winner-takes-all finale.

Beyond the podium, Rea held on for fourth position, while Davide Giugliano prevailed in a four-way scrap in the closing stages as he, Melandri, Chaz Davies and a charging Toni Elias tripped over one another to the chequered flag.

With the pole man winning out, Elias - who ran eighth for much of the race - collected sixth place, ahead of Davies and a fading Melandri, who is now under pressure for his third place in the standings.

Well adrift of the lead fight, Eugene Laverty finished in ninth position, ahead of Alex Lowes and Leon Haslam, while Niccolo Canepa's 12th place secured him the EVO race win by just 0.011secs.

However, the result was not enough to prevent David Salom from sealing the inaugural - and probably last - EVO title for Kawasaki Racing in 13th position. Sylvain Barrier and Bryan Staring completed the points' paying positions.