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Chaz Davies took a stunning double win in Aragon and with momentum on his side, the Welshman will look to increase the pressure on Rea and Sykes next time out in Assen.

“Who will be the King of Aragon?” That was the question posed by WorldSBK.com prior to last weekend, but now the big question is whether or not we have seen a changing of the guard in the Championship.

Chaz Davies delivered a truly dominant weekend for Ducati at the Spanish circuit and it’s likely that the Welshman will use it as a springboard to his title charge as the European season begins. Davies won both races in a comfortable fashion and after leading the Kawasakis home by six seconds in Race 2 he is now only 26 points behind Jonathan Rea in the title chase.

Ducati brought a series of upgrades to Aragon and it certainly gave a boost to Davies’ bike. The new exhaust was the most visible change and while it was confirmed to WorldSBK.com that there is no significant increase in power, as a result of the modification the character of the engine has been greatly improved. This gave Davies a lot more confidence as he opened the throttle and in a surprising turn of fortunes he was able to make both race winning overtaking moves at the end of long straights.

The turnaround from Ducati has been hugely impressive. Despite winning in Aragon last year there were serious questions marks about the Panigale R after it took its first ever win, but 12 months on the bike now looks like a real challenger for the title.

Davies could have won both races in Australia, had the pace to win in the second race in Thailand and dominated Aragon. The former WorldSSP Champion has looked at ease all year and comfortable in his surroundings. The calmness within the garage has been impressive and after a dreadful performance in the opening Thai Race, they found almost a full second a lap to jump back into contention for Race 2. Insiders in the Kawasaki team have said that if there was another two laps in that race, they felt Davies would have won.

The methodical nature of Davies approach to racing has perfectly complimented Ducati’s approach and he hasn’t been fazed by anything all year.

The same could be said for Rea too after a superb ride in the opening race of the weekend saw him adapt to an ill-handling Kawasaki ZX10-R Ninja. Rea started on the second row after “going the wrong way with settings” on Friday but when the points were on offer he claimed two podiums. His adaptability in Race 1 was particularly impressive but he suffered a problem on Sunday with a vibration that robbed him of confidence.

Confidence won’t be an issue for Tom Sykes going forward. The former World Champion matched his teammate’s points tally for the second consecutive Round. Speaking after the races, Sykes made clear that he was confident moving on to the European season. When asked if the questions about his ability to make his tyres last the distance, he answered “I’ve shown in Thailand and here that tyres aren’t an issue for me. With setup improvements we’ll get even better at the end of races.”

On the basis of Aragón, it’s clear that improvements will be needed if they are to close that gap to the Ducati of Davies. However, this was a race meeting that Ducati would have long circled in their calendar in pencil as one they expected 50 points from. Assen will be another strong circuit for Davies but he was piped to the race wins last year by Rea.

Momentum is a very strange force in racing. When you have it in your favour you’ll feel that you can do no wrong but once it turns it can feel that nothing will swing it back to you. Davies has that momentum now and he’ll need to carry it forward to the Netherlands and increase the pressure on the Kawasaki duo.

Last year was one of dominance for Jonathan Rea but already it looks as though 2016 could be a truly epic title fight in WorldSBK!