SBK | Prosecco DOC UK Round, Race2: complicated weekend for Ducati

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it racing – Ducati) closed the sixth round of the Superbike World Championship, at Donington Park, with a fifth place which partially satisfies him considering all the difficulties he had throughout the weekend.

Starting from fifth position on the grid on Sunday, Davies hoped that a bit of rain could help him: however, the race took place in the dry and this meant having to push hard to maintain position.
This strategy caused rapid tire wear which led to difficulties in the final stages of the race.

“Race 2 went definitely better than Race 1, even though our goal was to finish further ahead. I think overall I had a good race. When the first drops of rain started to fall, I worked hard to take advantage of all my opportunities, but it didn't rain enough to worry the riders in front of us. I did everything I could to close the gap and at times I was almost there, but we had some difficulties. I had to push, putting more stress on the tire and we weren't able to do any better. We hope to build on what we did here and to have learned a lesson that we can use in Brno" – he said Chaz Davies.

On the other side of the garage, Marco Melandri had a weekend to forget, finishing in eleventh position: despite some changes, he didn't feel comfortable on the Panigale.

“I hoped to be able to maintain the pace on Saturday” – says Marco Melandri – “This would have allowed us to get close to fifth position, but unfortunately the changes did not bring the results we expected and the bike was nervous and physical, this affected our performance. I simply tried not to make any mistakes and take home as many points as possible. Let's look ahead to Brno, where we were quite competitive in the tests even if we still have to make a few steps forward to be among the leaders again."