After two collarbone injuries in 2018, Chaz Davies had to work hard on his Aruba Ducati just to finish races, never mind summon the determination to fight for podium places.

An off-season procedure was deemed a success and he came back into testing action at Jerez. Like the others he had a slightly cautious start on the new surface.  

“My shoulder feels good, really good now. It’s back to normal now. It took time to bed in the new surface but once it did it felt alright and considering the feeling that we had I felt that we got down to respectable lap times without stressing too much,” Davies told bikesportnews.com.

“It was a pretty decent day. We didn’t have a lot of new material for this test, some small bits, but the most useful thing was actually having seven weeks off the bike. You can reset your mind and that drums into your head the areas that you need to find improvements.”

Davies was glad of some time to think, and pleased that he returned to a largely familiar machine. “There were some areas that we picked up from where we left it in November. In November it can be tough to pinpoint and explain what you want in certain areas but after seven weeks you can have a clear direction.

"This was a good chance to say that we needed to work in the first throttle connection area of chassis and electronics. I’ve not talked to the other riders yet about things.”