---
title: "Crash deals big blow to Davies’ title challenge"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/04/01/crash-deals-big-blow-to-davies-title-challenge/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "SBK"
published: "2017-04-01T20:26:30Z"
modified: "2017-04-02T10:45:06Z"
---

# Crash deals big blow to Davies’ title challenge

Chaz Davies’ challenge for a maiden World Superbike crown took a hefty knock in the opening race of the Aragon weekend after he crashed out on the penultimate lap.

Davies came into Saturday’s action on the back foot after losing all of FP1 to an engine issue. Though comfortably making it into the second part of qualifying, the Ducati rider wasn’t particularly happy with the set-up of his Panigale.

![Ducati Corse](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/04/untitled-1.png1-2-1.png)

Starting from pole, having set a new outright lap record of 1m49.319s, Davies locked horns with Rea for almost the entirety of the 19-lap contest.

“After having missed FP1, we knew we were a bit behind in figuring things out so today I just wanted to do my race,” explained Davies.

“I was trying to keep Rea at bay, passing him each time I had the opportunity to do so, but with five laps to go I started to feel the bike was a bit more nervous and harder to manage in corner entry.”

Davies led across the line at the beginning of the penultimate lap, knowing full well how crucial it was to finish ahead of Rea. Though struggling with a bike now not doing exactly what he wanted, he still held sway.

> Twitter: 2 LAPS LEFT @chazdavies7 took the lead again by overtaking @jonathanrea but CRASHED ![](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/svg/1f4a5.svg) and left everybody absolutely… https://t.co/igUzIW91Ac (@WorldSBK)

But his afternoon went awry at the second-to-last corner, Davies sliding into retirement after the front wheel locked up.

Thankfully, he walked away from the high-speed off unscathed, but he heads into tomorrow’s second race 55 points down on Rea. He’ll start behind the Northern Irishman in 10th.

“The weight was coming on and off the front. That’s what happened in the last corner; it locked without much warning and I lost the front.

“I was lucky to escape without injuries. Tomorrow we’ll try to get a good start and see if we can make our way to the front again. We want to win races.”