Davies: Race one pace "gives me a lot of confidence"

Chaz Davies accepted that the incident at turn one in the first World Superbike race at Misano which forced him off track and hurt his podium ambitions were a consequence of a tough qualifying session.

The Welshman's pace had been apparent throughout the free practice session on Saturday morning, but ninth place in Superpole was some distance from where Davies wanted to be.

Thanks to a collision between Xavi Fores and Lorenzo Savadori at the notoriously tight turn one chicane on lap one, Davies found himself in 20th position at the end of lap one.

"I think a couple of people came together," said a philosophical Davies soon after. "That's the risk when you qualify in ninth. Those things happen and it's more of a reflection on a bad qualifying. We shouldn't have been in that position in the first place."

Along with the all-Kawasaki battle at the front, Davies' ride through the field to a commendable fourth was the most absorbing part of the race.

By lap three the Aruba.it Ducati man had climbed to eleventh. Seven laps later and he was fifth with Jordi Torres ahead and unable to stop his advances, as Davies went on to claim fourth.

Yet it was his pace throughout the race that was of particular note. "It was really good," he continued. "At one point I was about eleven seconds behind the Kawasakis and I closed that up to around five seconds. I got five seconds over the race and that gives me a lot of confidence.

"We've improved the bike a lot since yesterday. It's a lot nicer to ride without having all that extra grip on the rear with a qualifying tyre. I'm just disappointed but I'm happy with the way I rode and how it went.

"[The incident at turn one] made it a more fun race. I enjoyed it but it would have been nice to have got a podium out of it.

"This morning I felt much better with the bike. But it was quite cold then so I was a little apprehensive about how it would react in the hot temperatures. But it was OK. The grip is down but the character of the bike stayed decent. Just obviously the first lap incident affected my race."