GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies will start from tenth and on the fourth row for the World Superbike main races tomorrow at Imola, and after a struggling with his bike setup yesterday the Welshman is satisfied that improvements have been made and is much happier with his pace that he set today.

Davies began Superpole with a few laps on race tyres before changing to the first qualifying tyre with three minutes to go and recorded the eleventh fastest time to proceed to Superpole two. Here the rider used the second qualifying tyre for his first outing and was ninth fastest. He went out again on a race tyre, and even though he improved his time he missed qualification for Superpole three by only a tenth of a second.

The Presteigne resident felt he performed better on the race tyre, but is adamant that he still has more to give, and could have gone even quicker in Superpole this afternoon.

“The bike improved quite a lot today. I am happier with it than I was yesterday but everybody else has also improved so we need to make another step for tomorrow. In today’s Superpole I did my best lap with a race tyre as I found that the qualifying tyre was loading the rear too much on the gas and I could not turn the bike very well,” said Davies.

“It is good to know that I can do a decent lap time with the race tyre but I still believe that lap time isn’t enough. We need to further improve our pace for tomorrow and then I think it won’t be too bad because at the moment the bike is feeling the best it has been all weekend. We are getting there; we just need a good warm-up tomorrow morning and a good start in both races.”