Ending a difficult weekend with a podium finish, Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was able to secure a podium finish in front of his home fans, despite a tough battle in the opening laps.

Davies found himself in 11^th position on the third lap and clearly had a strong pace on board his Paniagle to catch Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) in third. Putting in a strong closing sequence of laps, Davies continued his strong pace through to the end of the race and was happy to take the podium following a strong round at Imola. 

“It was about as much as we could ask for,” Davies begins. “It was a difficult one, we had a terrible start and then were fighting through the field and it was like a game of Mario Kart out there, it was a case of trying to avoid everyone and avoid all the debris going with it, anyway, I’m happy to be here on the podium in front of the home fans. That’s the most important thing.”

Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) struggled to continue his podium finishing pace this season, and he was forced to retire from the race with a mechanical problem.

Admitting he has some issues which need resolving on board his Ducati machine, Melandri hopes to find the solution to his issues at the upcoming test in Misano next week. However he is hopeful he will be able to find a solution.

Melandri explains: “It was a very difficult weekend for me, since Imola we are getting worse and worse with some strange problems and the bike has some strange reaction to some points of acceleration. The rear tyre is jumping a lot and today it was too much for the front sprocket and it went out and the chain fell down. It was a shame, we are driving every time with such a struggle and even the guys are putting in a lot of effort to fix the problem and we are trying to put in as much effort as we can.”

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