Aruba.it Ducati rider Chaz Davies refused to place the blame on anyone but he and his team after a first lap mishap at World Superbike Misano saw him chasing the race thereafter.

Davies had qualified on the third row, and after swooping through Turn 1 an accident in the pack in front between Lorenzo Savadori and Xavi Fores forced him onto the gravel at Turn 2.

Despite the difficulties, which saw the Welshman drop to 20th, he said a better qualifying was the main reason he dropped yet more points on title rivals Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes

“I got a bump and had to go across the gravel, but that’s kind of the risk when you qualify in ninth and you’re mixed up in the pack like that,” said Davies.

“It’s more of a reflection on a bad qualifying than anything else; it would be great if it didn’t happen in the first corner but we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.”

A fine performance after that saw Davies make his way through into fourth place by the chequered flag and he is buoyant that if he can stay trouble free in tomorrow’s race he can challenge the Kawsakis.

“My pace was really good, I was 11 seconds behind Kawasaki and I closed it up to five seconds, over the course of a race, which gives me a lot of confidence,” he said.

“The bike has improved a lot since yesterday and the bike is a lot nicer to ride without the extra grip of a qualifying tyre in the rear.

“It’s just disappointing really for what happened, but happy with how I rode and happy with the way the race went.”