Chaz Davies recovers from crash to secure two fourths
Chaz was pleased to end a tough weekend with two fourth-placed finishes but admitted being frustrated to miss out on at least a podium in France.
The Mid Wales star recovered from a crash in race one on Saturday to leave the Magny-Cours circuit seventh in the championship standings, with two rounds to go.
Having led both Saturday's and Sunday's main races, it was mechanical problems and incidents involving riders all around him that eventually caused him to crash and lose vital places.
Poor weather conditions had disturbed the first two free practice sessions, making the surface slippery which in turn reduced the running time for the riders out on track.
Due to the rain, Aruba.it Racing–Ducati rider Davies completed very few laps but despite the lack of track time the 32-year-old decided to attack from fourth row during race one, immediately passing a number of his rivals and taking the lead.
However, while fighting for second place, a glitch while entering into turn 15 led to unintentional contact with Toprak Razgatlioglu, causing Davies to crash and putting an end to his race.
Davies said: "My race was good while it lasted seeing as I was fighting for the lead – it’s just unfortunate that it didn’t last very long!
"In the early laps certain parts of the track were still a bit damp and everyone was slightly conservative, maybe letting the conditions improve before going on the attack, so I decided to push hard.
"The Panigale V4 R was seemingly working well from a set-up point of view but as we hadn’t lapped in the dry in the previous sessions, unfortunately we couldn’t work fully on the electronics settings and this caused a wrong calibration in turn 15, which led to contact and my crash.
"I just did all I could to try and avoid Toprak and ended up by hitting him. I’m really frustrated to go out of the race like that, not only for the result but also for the information we could have learnt for tomorrow. Anyway, that’s racing.”
Sunday belonged to Davies' rival Jonathan Rea, from Northern Ireland, who powered his Kawasaki to an unprecedented fifth-straight World Championship title.
Meanwhile, Davies, from Presteigne, was able to improve in drier conditions taking two fourth places in both races.
Following a good run in the Superpole, the Welsh rider was lapping at the same pace as the leaders when he was involved in the incident between Razgatlioglu and his team-mate, Alvaro Bautista.
The incident lost Davies precious time, which he was never able to make up, crossing the line just outside the podium places.
Davies said: “In both races I finished in fourth place, which in itself is not a bad result but I feel I could have got a lot more.
"In race two I almost got caught up in the incident between Toprak and Álvaro so took avoiding action by going off the track.
"Unfortunately, I came off the grass at four seconds back and finished the race with the same gap that I was unable to make up. It was so frustrating not to get the chance to fight for the win, because the pace was there.”
Ducati still holds second place in the constructors’ standings, with Aruba.it Racing-Ducati second in the teams’ standings.
The World Superbike series now heads to South America for the penultimate event on the calendar, at the El Villicum circuit near the city of San Juan, in Argentina, October 11-13.
