Keeping his championship challenge in mind, Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) takes away positives from the opening weekend of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, securing two second position finishes following some hard fought battles with Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team).

Davies, who won six out of the final seven races in 2016 found it hard to break away from the field at the stunning Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. With his dominant style proving so successful in the past, the Welshman is not downbeat over losing out on a potential 10 points this weekend.

Davies reviews Round One: “When I look at the weekend as a whole, I’ve got to be happy with that. There’s a lot of potential to come away without points or podiums, especially with the new rules. Although I’m always disappointed to not take home a victory. Coming out here with the next best in terms of points, I think that’s very important for the long game so I’m very happy. I think we did well over the course of the test and the weekend and we can start to build over the next couple of races and the next weekends.

It was a mixed strategy today; it was definitely a lot quicker of a race than yesterday but it’s so impossible to get away here at Phillip Island. I played my strategy a bit different today, I tried to get to the front and take the lead but in the end it’s just so difficult here but overall, I’m very happy.”

Davies now looks ahead to Thailand for Round two, which kicks off in two weeks time where he hopes to improves on last year’s results.