Davies getting up to speed before World Superbike opener
Chaz Davies admitted it was great to be "much more ahead" and in tune with his bike this year before opening round of the World Superbike round after wrapping up a busy four days of testing.
The Mid Wales star put a slightly disappointing two days in Jerez, Spain, behind him to post the fifth quickest times earlier this week in Portimao, Portugal.
The second 2020 test session also saw his new Aruba.it Racing-Ducati team-mate, former MotoGP rider and current British Superbike champion Scott Redding, go even faster, ending the session in second.
Davies, 32, from Presteigne, clocked up 59 laps during the first day of testing in Portugal and 73 laps in the second, which was an encouraging improvement on his showing in Jerez last week, which include an early crash.
And his progress was in stark contrast to last year, when he was still getting to grips with what was then a brand-new Ducati Panigale V4, which took him several rounds to get to grips.
Davies said: "It's been a busy couple of days. We were lucky because the weather helped us to carry on our work.
"We tried new solutions – some of them gave positive results, while on other aspects we will have to work further.
"The lap-times? We will return to Portugal in September and the track conditions will be completely different so that wasn't our first target.
"In view of the first Grand Prix in Australia, I feel much more ahead of what I felt last year."
Davies had said there was still plenty of work to do before the opening race at Philip Island, Australia, following a testing few days in Spain last week.
A crash ended his first day of practice early after incessant rain made the track conditions tricky, but recovered to complete 27 laps on his Panigale V4 R, which placed him 15th fastest over all.
Davies, speaking after the Spanish test, added: “We worked on the bike and that didn’t allow me to focus on performance.
"I can’t hide the fact that we have encountered some issues in these tests. The base to work on, obviously, is very good but we need to put together many laps."
The final pre-season test takes place at Philip Island, February 24-25, before the opening round at the same track, February 28 to March 1.
