With Davide Giugliano officially being ruled out this weekend’s first round at Phillip Island with a back injury, fellow Aruba Ducati stable -mate Chaz Davies will be the sole pilot for the Italian team at this weekend’s World Superbike series opener.

The 2011 World Supersport champion got a fair bit of work completed today in the final test session before he knuckles down to business this coming Friday. After what was a ‘disappointing’ day on Monday after not finding the right feel with the Ducati Panigale R, however after a few changes early on Tuesday morning Davies did feel that there was a better improvement with his ‘red duck’.

“I think we have gone from not being too happy yesterday to being quite content, so we will see where we are come this weekend,” Davies told bikesportnews.com at Phillip Island.

Davies’ time of a 1’31.296 that he set in the first session today was 0.818sec faster than his time that he posted during yesterday’s second session.

In 2014 at Phillip Island, the Welshman came home with a eighth and seventh, and in fact the 28-year-old even posted the fastest lap time in race one with a 1’30.949.

So can Davies can us any predictions on what will happen this weekend… “No, its Superbike racing, you can’t predict anything. The racing is always tight; Phillip Island is even very tighter! You know who will be up there, but pick one from six to win the races.”

While everything all seems to be ‘systems are go’, what does play on Davies mind is his string of ‘hard luck’ at the track. “I’ve probably have had eight out of ten electrical technical issues, along with one crash here I think since I have been doing Superbike and Supersport in the last five years, so this plays on my mind a bit,” explained Davies.

“It just makes me think; having two solid positions at Phillip Island is always a good result, however at the end of day I’m working towards winning races on the Ducati. My objective is to be right up there in amongst it. I will play it smart, but have a go!”