Victorious Davies ‘loved every minute’ of race two
Chaz Davies says he ‘loved every minute’ of the second race of the German World Superbike, the Ducati rider tallying up his second win of the weekend at the Lausitzring.
Davies cruised to victory on Saturday despite suffering an issue with his rear brake on the way to the grid.
Starting from ninth as a result of his race one success, Davies was forced to push in the opening laps to close down team-mate Marco Melandri at the head of the pack.
Up to third by lap three, Davies carved past Melandri at Turn 9 on lap eight for second, before scything past Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea at Turn 4 on the following tour to take the lead.
Once in front, the Welshman settled into his rhythm and eased away from Rea behind to secure his fifth win and second double of the 2017 season.
“It was a great race and I loved every minute of it,” said Davies, who still sits third in the standings, 105 points adrift of Rea.
“It was different from yesterday, though, as we had to work our way up from third row on the grid.
“We had a good start and in the first couple of laps we were within sight of the lead, so when I saw Rea making his move I tried to hunt down him and Marco.
“It wasn’t easy to pass them, but then I just tried to set my own pace, ride clean, and not make mistakes.
“I was surprised by our rhythm today in the high 1m36s mark, we definitely improved since the tests here a month ago, and it shows the effort everyone is putting in.”
Rea: It was about consolidation at the end
Championship leader Rea’s afternoon was blighted by a difficult ZX-10RR to ride when he lost edge grip from his Pirelli rubber.
The Northern Irishman was able to blast into second on lap two despite starting from eighth on the grid and looked set to challenge for his 10th win of the season.
However, he quickly lost grip from his rear tyre, and this along with the bumpy nature of the Lausitzring made fending off Davies an impossible task.
“Chaz was really solid in race two and his pace was good,” explained Rea, whose second-place finish moves him 70 points in front of KRT team-mate Tom Sykes in the standings.
“When I had really good grip in the beginning I felt strong on the bike, but as soon as I started to lose entry-traction the bike became very physical to ride.
“I was manhandling the bike and this is such a bumpy track. Yesterday’s race started to take its toll a little bit also.
“I had no big moments but I just tried to rein it in a little bit and I saw my gap behind to Marco was just moving forward, tenth by tenth, so it was about consolidation at the end. When I lost the edge grip it was just not possible to stay in front, but I did try.”