Davies 'heading in the right direction' as World Superbike restart nears

The World Superbike star was out on the track in Misano, Italy, for three days of testing on his Panigale V4 R – his first attempt to get back up to speed following the global lockdown.

The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider, from Presteigne, Mid Wales, posted the fifth quickest time over all after nearly four months away from any form of racing.

Meanwhile, his new team-mate, reigning British Superbike champion Scott Redding, again showed his quality after recording the quickest time of the three-day test, which was held towards the end of last week.

Davies, 32, said: "It was nice to get back out there and see a lot of familiar faces.

"It has been a long four months and there was a great desire to reconnect with the bike and the track.

"We worked a lot to try many solutions and get some important feedback.

"We have improved in some areas and we have to improve in other aspects but the direction is the right one."

Almost four months have passed since the first round of the 2020 WorldSBK season was held at Phillip Island, Australia.

Restrictions soon postponed all racing as the spread of Covid-19 forced teams and riders into lockdown.

But last Tuesday (JUN 23) afternoon, the engines of the Ducati Panigale V4 R returned to sing for a quick shakedown, which helped Davies regain his confidence with the bike ahead of the official relaunch, which is due to take place in Jerez, Spain, July 31 to August 2.

The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati riders then carried out two intense days of testing, which ended on Thursday. Davies was able to complete 177 laps over the whole three days.

Marco Zambenedetti, Ducati Corse Technical Coordinator, added: "I am very satisfied with these three days of testing as we were able to test, with Redding and Davies.

"We had good feedback from the riders on the new ergonomics.

"We also retested some of the solutions we tried in Australia and there are still some others to try out, especially from an electronic point of view.

"We will be able to do it before the race weekend at Jerez."

Serafino Foti, team manager of Aruba.it Racing – Ducati, said: "We were looking forward to getting back to work and this test was taken with great enthusiasm.

"They have been three very important days for the riders and the whole team, also to get familiar with the new protocols that we will have to follow in the next rounds.

"Our season will start again: it will be shorter but at the same time, it will be very intense. As always we will give our best to get the best possible result."