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Chaz Davies battled and gritted his teeth but it wasn't enough to hold Johnny Rea back or deny him his 61st WorldSBK win. The Aruba rider had to settle for second place at Laguna Seca, but he prefers to see the glass half full.
“It was a good race. From where I sat, I did all I could. I gave up the lead while pushing, but honestly I don't think the final result would have changed."
His battle with the Cannibal was the focus of race 1.
“I was trying to keep Rea honest but we just didn't quite have the pace in the last ten laps. I was losing a tenth here and there, so I tried not to make mistakes and see what he had. He made a couple of errors at the Corkscrew, but not big enough for me to erase the gap."
Chaz remains positive.
“Overall I'm very happy, we got pole position and fastest lap but just missed the big trophy. We got good data and learned a bit today, so hopefully we'll come back a little bit stronger tomorrow."
On the other side of the garage, Marco Melandri had to console himself with fifth place after an uphill climb in qualifying.
“Today we faced a difficult race despite the fact that the weekend had been going really well so far. In Superpole I didn't find much grip and I couldn't make a good lap."
Melandri isn't looking for excuses.
“Starting from fourth row wasn't easy, early on I couldn't ride smoothly but after a while I started to feel better. Unfortunately, we were too far by then to challenge for the podium. I tried to catch Laverty but I made a mistake during the last lap and probably it wouldn't have been possible to pass him anyway. Tomorrow is a new day, we'll try improve during warm-up and we'll see how we fare in Race 2. Starting from first row will help, but it'll be more important to improve the pace."
