SBK| Acerbis Qatar Round, Race1: double podium for Ducati
Davies and Melandri finished in second and third place respectively
Despite a less than exciting Tissot-Superpole, Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri managed to bring Aruba.it Racing – Ducati to the podium in the first race at the Losail International Circuit, scene of the thirteenth round, behind an elusive Jonathan Rea.
Davies started from eighth place but thanks to a great start, he ended up fighting for the podium, in a race that overall proved to be quite difficult, given that he didn't have great sensations with the front and had to manage the tires.
Second position was the best result that could be achieved given that Jonathan Rea was in another category: Davies now finds himself 10 points ahead of Tom Sykes with a view to second place in the world championship standings.
“I'm happy because we achieved our main objective, which was to gain points in the fight for second place in the championship. It wasn't an easy race though” – he said Chaz Davies – “I think we achieved the best possible result with the package at our disposal. It was a matter of managing some problems. We struggled a lot with grip, both entering and exiting corners, and we lacked a bit of agility. However, we finished in second place and we are happy with the 20 points we scored."
Marco Melandri had a complicated start from ninth place but he was good at managing the tires and the pace as best as possible, also considering the grip problems at the rear: for the final result, the man from Ravenna also benefited from the problems of others, such as the two crashes by Alex Lowes and the breakdown suffered by Xavi Fores
Despite being ten seconds behind Jonathan Rea, Melandri is very happy to have shared the podium with his teammate, in third place.
“I'm happy, because I don't think we could have done more today. After the Superpole I wouldn't have known what to expect, but the team did a great job and we managed to make a good step forward with the setup for the race, where I wasn't 100% but at least I was able to ride close to the limit” – he said Marco Melandri – “At the start of the race I struggled, I lacked grip at the rear. The bike was moving a lot and I wasn't able to be incisive enough. I tried to compensate with the front, managing to recover some ground, but towards the end the tire was very worn and I preferred not to take unnecessary risks. It's a podium that gives us morale."
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With 200 cc less, Ducati has its work cut out for it to keep up with the 4 cylinders. We await the desmosedici.