SBK, Davies: "I have good pace, but can do more"

It's one of his favourites, so much so that last year he left his rivals to pick up just the crumbs. Again this time, Chaz Davies and the Ducati have made a strong start at Laguna Seca. In the first practice session only Alex Lowes, with a new tyre, was able to do more, going faster in the final stages. But the Ducati man responded on Friday afternoon, winning a head to head with Rea, and finishing 0.074 ahead.

Almost one hundred points separate him from the lead, a practically insurmountable gap, but he is not throwing in the towel just yet and plans to fight back at the Californian round, where he has immediately demonstrated his feeling with the track: “Various unexpected issues have hindered our progress recently - he explained – but I believe that we can turn things around and we need to start doing so here".

La prestazione del venerdì soddisfa il pilota della Rossa: "Being the quickest on Friday is always positive, buttomorrow and Sunday are more important. We managed to find a good pace since the very first lap, and there’s still room for improvement."  Davies is optimistic ahead of qualifying and aims to react after the unlucky Misano weekend.

Davide Giugliano also wants to make an impression at the US track. After finishing ninth in the morning, the Roman rider moved up to fifth in the second session, behind Tom Sykes. This could be his chance to make up for last year, which forced him to raise the white flag early.

The Ducati rider has clear aims here: "We’ve made big steps forward throughout the day, improving our lap times significantly, and we’ll use FP3 to put on the final touches to the bike and have a go at the podium in both races to continue the recent, positive trend.”​