Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea will target third place in 2014 World Superbike title chase in Qatar as a farewell prize to Honda as he switches to Kawasaki next season.

The Isle of Man resident is 11 points behind Marco Melandri with 50 left on the table at Losail over the two races. Rea will make his debut under floodlights whereas Melandri raced at Doha in MotoGP so has previous experience of the glare and shadows.

I’m really looking forward to racing in Losail again for a variety of reasons. I’ve done a couple of new model launches there for Honda and I really like the circuit layout; it’ll also be the first time I’ve raced at night.” said Rea.

“I think the visibility will be quite high, especially compared to riding in the dark like I’ve done at Suzuka in the Eight-Hours. But I think the biggest challenge is going to be the schedule and working out the best time for food intake and other things in order to perform physically late at night instead of during the day.

“It’s the last round of the championship but the plan is still quite straightforward. The CBR has been quite competitive at the last few rounds so we’ll try to get a good base setting again on Friday and aim to finish the season on a high in this desert challenge.”