---
title: "Davies: I had to let the race come to me"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2016/10/03/davies-i-had-to-let-the-race-come-to-me/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "SBK"
published: "2016-10-03T12:12:40Z"
modified: "2016-10-03T12:12:51Z"
---

# Davies: I had to let the race come to me

Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies secured his seventh win of the 2016 season after making it back-to-back victories at Magny-Cours on Sunday. But the Welshman later revealed that Sunday’s race was far from easy, his pace lacking somewhat to the leading Kawasaki duo.

Davies got a good start and took the lead into the Adelaide hairpin on the opening lap. It was short-lived, though, as Tom Sykes came steaming up the inside of both Davies and Jonathan Rea at the same corner. The Ducati rider struggled to run the pace of Sykes, and soon found the second ZX-10R ahead of him.

As Rea chased down his teammate, Davies was slipping further back, the gap standing at 1.5 seconds as half distance approached. Lapping in the mid 1m38s bracket, Davies knew that he just had to bide his time and gradually build up his pace. Eventually, he began to reel in the Kawasaki in front of him as they began to trip each other up.

Rea had the pace over Sykes, but the Yorkshireman kept him at bay in the braking zones, all of this allowing Davies to creep up behind them. The Ducati rider found himself right onto the back wheel of Rea with six laps to go, and when the Northern Irishman pushed Sykes out wide at Turn 5, Davies didn’t need a second invitation.

Now in clear air, Davies knew that he had to put some daylight between himself and the KRT bikes and proceeded to do so, building up a nice buffer of just over two seconds to secure the lead. With Sykes not letting Rea get away from him, Davies was left to cruise across the line to cap off what he describes as ‘one of the most important weekends of my career’.

Though still mathematically in the hunt for the title, clawing back 81 points in just four races is a tall order. However, Davies’ superb weekend in France has put him just 33 points off of Sykes in the standings. With 150 points still up for grabs, the battle for second is well and truly on.

“It wasn’t easy at all today. I took the opportunity when it came, but honestly I didn’t think it was going to happen. I was struggling early on, doing the same pace as on Friday in the mid 1m38s mark,” said Davies.

“I was also finding it hard to pass the Kawasakis, as I couldn’t see where to do it unless I took a big risk, so I had to let the race come to me a little bit. It did eventually, and as Jonathan and Tom pushed each other wide at the hairpin, I just took the opportunity and dropped the hammer to put some distance in between myself and them. It’s been one of the most important weekends of my career, because we won in very different conditions, reaping the fruits of a lot of hard work with the whole team.”