Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies was narrowly beaten to victory in both races at this weekend’s World Superbike season-opener at Phillip Island, but is nonetheless happy with his results.
The Welsh rider came into the 2017 season as the favourite to take the fight to Jonathan Rea after a sensational run of seven wins in the final eight races of last season. Topping both practice sessions on Friday, Davies did nothing to quash those predictions.
In Saturday’s first race, he was pipped to the win by Kawasaki’s Rea by just 0.042s, and was once again narrowly edged by the Northern Irishman on Sunday.
“When I look at the weekend as a whole, I’ve got to be happy with that,” said Davies.
“There’s a lot of potential to come away without points or podiums, especially with the new rules; although I’m always disappointed to not take home a victory.”
In the second race, Davies tried to break away when he took the lead at half distance. But Phillip Island’s tendency to keep riders bunched meant that he was unable to escape, and he took the chequered flag 0.025s away from victory.
“It was a mixed strategy today; it was definitely a lot quicker a race than yesterday but it’s so impossible to get away here at Phillip Island.
“I played my strategy a bit different today. I tried to get to the front and take the lead but in the end it’s just so difficult here, but overall I’m happy.”
Davies two second places put him just 10 points adrift Rea, and he is confident of being able to build on this next time out in Thailand.
“Coming out of here with the next best in terms of points, I think that’s very important for the long game so I’m very happy.
“I think we did well over the the course of the test and the weekend, and we can start to build over the next couple of races and the next weekends.”
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