It looked like Thursday’s pace had gone missing for Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) after a 12^th place grid slot but the 2011 World Supersport Champion put in a determined ride back through the pack to take podium honours for a sixth time at the Losail International Circuit, just outside Doha in Qatar. From row four, a fast-starting Davie erupted through the pack before settling down and chasing the podium contenders, narrowly falling short of a third win at Losail.

Up to fourth by the end of the opening lap, Davies fought hard to catch GRT Yamaha WorldSBK’s Sandro Cortese, picking the German rider off in fine style. Crashing a lap later, Davies was left alone and without pressure, chasing down Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and passing him with just five laps to go. The 30-time WorldSBK race winner then set about hunting down arch-rival Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and despite getting the gap down to under a second for a brief moment, Davies couldn’t overhaul the metronomic Ulsterman.

Speaking after the race, Davies delved into his Tissot Superpole problems, commenting: “It was a really good race, maybe exceeding expectation a little bit because after Tissot Superpole, I thought, ‘not again!’ because it was a bad showing and I just couldn’t push the bike with a fresh rear tyre. It became easier to make a mistake than it did to put a lap together.”

Davies could be set to equal important record on Saturday in Qatar, with a race victory putting him level on wins with double World Superbike Champion, Colin Edwards (31). Two more podiums for Davies would see the Welshman hit 90 in his career, whilst his start in the Tissot Superpole Race will be hi 160^th with Ducati, equalling Pierfrancesco Chili for starts with the Bologna manufacturer.

Continuing to review his race performance, Davies said: “In the end, I got a really good start in the race and got a good first corner, and then the rest was just solid. I felt smooth, clean, and was just trying to get a tenth here and a tenth there, to see if I was in the mix come the end of the race. Unfortunately, just using that little bit more tyre just kept us out of the fight. I feel like we can just work on our package a little bit for tomorrow, try and up our pace a bit and maybe even try and conserve our tyre a little bit better.”

Find out if Davies can take a third victory at the Losail International Circuit on Saturday with the WorldSBK VideoPass!