After a first day of practice characterized by extreme heat and low grip, the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team took it back to the track in Buriram (Thailand) determined to improve. In Superpole, Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano qualified in fourth and sixth place respectively, essentially cutting the gap from the top in half. However, despite taking steps forward, eventually both riders could not fight for the victory during Race One, which was won by reigning world champion Jonathan Rea.
Davies and Giugliano raced in close quarters at length, in fourth and fifth position respectively. While Davies showed a more consistent pace in the early phases, Giugliano recovered from half-way on. The pair then engaged in a spectacular, fair duel, which unfortunately was cut short by a crash from Giugliano with two laps to go. Davies thus ended the race in fourth position, taking 13 valuable points, while the Italian, who still managed to rejoin the race, closed in 18th position.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 4th
“It’s been a difficult race, and honestly I don’t think I could have done more today. I didn’t have the pace to stay with the frontrunners, and it wasn’t easy to hold Davide back either. I suffered an unexpected wear on the rear tyre before half-way, and I had to play defense. Also, top speed unfortunately is really important on this track and we still need to work on this aspect, especially in the first sector. It won’t be easy, but we won’t give up and will try some more changes to at least step on the podium tomorrow.”
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) – 18th
“On the bright side, we’ve made a big step forward since yesterday, but I still struggled under braking and today it wasn’t possible to race at the front. If anything, as in Phillip Island, I managed to be progressively faster in the second half of the race. Still, I regret the crash, which took me off guard because I’ve never had any issues in turn 12 before. Like last year, this track is proving to be tricky for us, but we’ll evaluate the situation to have a proper rematch.”
Ernesto Marinelli, Superbike Project Director
“Today’s race has been tougher than what we expected. Chaz experienced some uncharacteristic tyre-wear issues with the rear, which we’ll analyze in detail. Davide was coming back strong, and it’s a shame he crashed out while battling with his teammate, but this is racing and sometimes you go just a bit above the limits. We need to cut the gap with the front, so we’ll use the night to think it over and will do all we can to be stronger tomorrow.”
Weekend schedule (CET +6):
Sunday
11:00 – 11:15 SBK Warm-up
16:00 SBK Race 2
