Chaz Davies has kept the momentum going at ‘Circuito de Jerez’ last weekend by finishing the two, eleventh-round races of the Superbike World Championship in second and first place. These results have helped the 28-year-old from Knighton, Wales consolidating the second place in the standings, as he is now 22 points ahead of his nearest rival, KRT’s Tom Sykes.

“What a race!” Davies said shortly after his Race 2 win. “This is was kind of what we were looking for during the weekend, in terms of race pace. Actually I thought it was difficult to get a win here. The smart move was not to change anything for the second race, apart from the electronics a little bit. This really paid dividends because the conditions were a lot different, it was fair bit more slippery and we were lapping a second slower. It is good to get some big points for the run to the end of the season.”

Joined by Ducati’s WorldSBK test rider Luca Scassa, Davies and the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike returned to the track yesterday for a one-day official test at the Andalusian venue.

The Italian squad used the seven hours available to complete a work programme that included the testing of new Pirelli tyres with respect to those used in the races; the testing of some Antispin and Engine Brake Control strategies; the refining of software updates introduced during the recent race weekend; some front set-ups and different internal Öhlins suspension settings. The team made the most of being able to work more systematically and calmly than it can during a race weekend. Davies lapped with times in line with Sunday’s performance, completing a total of 68 laps. Unfortunately, a technical problem kept Scassa in the garage for most of the morning session but in the afternoon the Italian was able to make 51 laps.

Speaking to WorldSBK.com, the Welshman said: “We haven’t tried anything revolutionary on the bike today. We just worked on a couple of problems we had during the weekend on the front end and try to understand where we are, where we’ll be and what we need to improve to get me a bit more feeling when I get off the brakes. We were thinking both about the last two rounds and the upcoming year.”