Davies shakes off ‘a lot of front slides’ to claim best result since Estoril

Following two difficult rounds in Misano and Donington Park due to injury, Chaz Davies returned to form at Assen WorldSBK with fourth place in race two. 

It’s the GoEleven Ducati rider’s best result since race two in Estoril where he claimed second position. 

Davies claimed two ninth place finishes during race one and the ten lap Superpole race, however, an improvement made with the ‘turning’ of his Ducati Panigale V4 R for race two allowed the Welshman to ‘work less on myself’. 

At one stage it looked like a podium was possible for Davies as he closed in on former team-mate Scott Redding. But with a few laps to go, Davies ran out of front tyre which instead put him under pressure from Alvaro Bautista. 

Davies was able to resist the Spaniard’s late attack and therefore gain valuable points on Garrett Gerloff for top independent rider. 

Speaking after race two, Davies added: "We made quite a big change on the bike and it was good! I am happy to feel a step forward in turning; it was turning more naturally and that helped not only the performance of the bike, but also from the physical point of view, I had to work on myself a little bit less and I could let the bike do the work naturally. 

"So credit to my crew for making a step forward, for being brave in a decision, it was definitely the right one. Unfortunately we suffered the same problem of yesterday, with seven laps to go I killed the front tyre. 

"That was a bit disappointing, because I was really feeling like I could get in the mix for the podium, catching Scott [Redding] a little bit; rear tyre was quite good, but the front was absolutely dead. 

"From that I was just managing to stay on the bike, I was really losing it a lot, I had to save a lot of front slides. 

"I did what I needed to do, I conserved fourth place and top independent rider, so happy with that and thanks to the Go Eleven Team!"