GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies found that much needed consistency in his race pace, that he had been missing in previous rounds, after finding a grip level he was happy with in the tyres, enabling him to take away sixth and fifth place finishes in the World Superbike races at Imola yesterday.

Davies did not have an easy weekend, and had to battle hard, first in race one with fellow Brit, Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier, and in race two with his own team-mate Marco Melandri. On the final lap the Welshman got the better of Melandri, but moments after the Italian overtook Davies at Piratella, and on the final chicane Davies attempted to challenge again, but a mistake coming out of Rivazza 2 meant that Melandri was able to take fourth by five tenths of a second.

The Powys based rider is not completely satisfied with his bike and is still having handling issues when coming out of corners, but he did enjoy battling with his team-mate in the final race of the day at Imola.

“Race one was difficult. I was not able to exit the corners as I wanted to. Everywhere else the bike seemed to be working OK but I could not get the bike under control as much as I would like on the corner exit,” said Davies.

“I either slided and then found grip what upset the bike, or the acceleration was just not good enough. That cost me one bike length each time and I always had to push on the straights to catch that up again until the next corner. In the end, the bike was easier to ride than in the middle of the race, the grip level was more consistent. It seemed as with the longer the race went on, the bike became better.

“We used that knowledge to improve the bike for the second race. The bike was better and I was able to at least fight in a good group with Marco and at the end of the race I still had the guys on the podium positions in sight. The battle with Marco in the closing stages was fun.

“I passed him with two laps to go and held him off for one lap but then racing up the hill he got a really good drive and he passed back at the top of Piratella. Then in the last corner he went in a little bit too deep and I tried to cut back on the inside but I lost the rear unfortunately when I tried to pass him which was a bit of a shame but it was fun anyway. The only thing I am disappointed about is that I still lost too much time on the exit of slow corners.”