GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies has cited tyre and bike issues as to the reason that he has qualified ninth in tomorrow’s World Superbike championship race. He will start from the third row, alongside Fixi Crescent Suzuki's Leon Camier.

The Presteigne rider had an easy progression through the first session directly to Superpole two, and initially there were issues on team-mate Marco Melandri’s side of the garage. An electronic problem prevented the Italian from going out on track straight away. In the second Superpole outing the riders again opted for race tyres, Melandri did one lap and finished eighth, and Davies went out twice and finished seventh.

With the fastest nine riders qualifying for Superpole three, both riders reached the final session and opted for qualifying tyres. But during the Welshman’s first outing he went wide in the chicane, meaning his first lap time was deleted. He stayed out on track and rode more laps on the now used qualifying tyres and as a result finished ninth.

Davies is now looking towards the race tomorrow, and even though it will be harder for him starting from the third row, he is confident that his team will be able to solve the problems with the bike, especially with the balance of the bike going into corners.

“This morning, I was not really satisfied with the bike. For the afternoon we made some changes and I was much happier. On a race tyre I went 1.3 seconds faster than in the morning which was a big improvement. But I was still struggling with the balance of the bike at the corner entry, this combined with the increased grip of the qualifying tyres meant that the bike became too nervous,” said Davies.

“That was why I went wide in Superpole three with the qualifying tyre, the bike did not react at the corner entry as I had expected. The guys are working on solving this now and I am confident that they will find something. Tomorrow it is important to get a good start. Regarding the race pace, we are pretty competitive.”