The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team further extended its podium streak with Davide Giugliano’s second place in WorldSBK Race 1 in Donington (U.K.). Chaz Davies, who took the “holeshot” to lead the race in the early phases, was unfortunately forced to retire for the first time this year due to a double crash.
Davies and Giugliano quickly took first and second position at the start of the race and set the pace after taking the second and fifth spot on the grid in Superpole. During the sixth lap, a low-speed crash in the final corner caused Davies to lose ground and rejoin the race in 16th position with Giugliano taking the lead. The Italian progressively pulled away from the pack together with Sykes, leading the race until six laps to go and finishing in second place to seal his second consecutive podium after Race 2 in Malaysia. Davies, who fiercely climbed back through the field until he reached ninth position, unluckily crashed again at turn 8, this time without being able to rejoin the race. The Welshman is still second in the championship with 215 points while Giugliano moves up to fourth with 138 points. Race 2 is scheduled for 3 p.m. local time (CET -1) tomorrow.
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) – 2nd
“It was a hard race, as it was difficult to manage both the tyres and the energy. The battle with Sykes was both fair and fun though. We’ve been practically tied the whole race. I was expecting him to drop the pace a little, but he was faster in the final laps and when I tried to match him I realized that it would have been too risky, so now we’ll evaluate some small changes to our setup together with the team to improve in the last phase of the race. It’s certainly positive to step back on the podium after Malaysia, but we’re still not taking advantage of 100 percent of our potential and we don’t want to settle.”
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – Ret.
“I’m obviously disappointed. We’ve been playing catch up and we went into the race still trying to figure out our chances after missing out on some precious time during practice. Friday plays a big part in setting up the bike and choosing the right tyre, and unfortunately we couldn’t take full advantage of it, so the plan was to get a good feel for the bike lap after lap and gauge our opportunities. Perhaps of choice for the front tyre wasn’t the best, but that’s not what caused the crash. In both cases, when I released the brake, the front unloaded a bit too quickly. Still, it was good to lead for a while, and we’ll start from that to bounce back tomorrow.”
Ernesto Marinelli, Superbike Project Director
“It was undoubtedly a bittersweet race. On the one hand, we’re very happy for Davide, who confirmed his positive momentum after Malaysia taking second place again and getting progressively closer to the victory, which he barely missed today. On the other hand, we’re sorry for Chaz as one DNF is a hard blow in this phase of the championship, but it’s useless to dwell on the past and we need to look forward to have a strong reaction tomorrow. Both our riders have shown the potential to be extremely competitive, so I’m confident we can put all the pieces of the puzzle together to improve ahead of Race 2.”
