GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies topped the timesheets in the first World Superbike qualifying practice session at his team’s home round at the Nurburgring, but the Welshman vows that he can do better and ‘step up’ for Superpole tomorrow.

The Powys resident clocked his quickest lap with less than two minutes remaining of the session, and in doing so demoted fellow Brit, Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes to second fastest with his best lap of 1’55.034. Earlier in the day Davies was fourth quickest in free practice, and found that extra race pace to dominate in the Superbike class, and he is now a very happy rider.

“It was a good day. I am happy with the RR, it was working pretty well straight away this morning. The bike was already pretty good in the dry at Silverstone and it was also working very well in Russia so that shows that we have found some decent settings in the last few races,” said Davies.

“Today we only struggled a little bit at the beginning of the first qualifying as we went in the wrong direction with the shock absorber but the guys quickly went back to a previous setting and the bike improved again. I am happy and I think that we can make another step tomorrow.”