Ducati duo Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano both crashed out of yesterday’s opening World Superbike race at Laguna Seca and it saw the effective end of the Welshman’s 2016 title challenge.

Davies went down at turn seven after posting the fastest lap of the race and then Giugliano followed suit at The Corkscrew, leaving the Aruba-backed squad with two no scores and Davies slipping to 122 points behind leader Jonathan Rea, who extended his championship advantage.

“I’m very disappointed. We got off a good start and we had a good pace from the very beginning. I didn’t feel on the limit but I felt the rear lock while on the brakes ahead of turn 7, and when it gained grip back the front loaded too much and I couldn’t do anything. We’ll try to bounce back tomorrow, given that we have good potential,” said Davies.
 
Giugliano added: “It’s been a difficult day, for the whole team. We had a pace worthy of the podium, if not more, but it’s useless to say that in retrospect. We’ll have to understand together with the team what caused the crash, because at that point of the race I wasn’t pushing 100 percent as I was trying to save the tyres. We have to move on and look forward, as tomorrow we’ll have another chance to score a good result.”