After taking second position with Davide Giugliano in Race 1, the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team stepped on the podium once again in Donington (U.K.) with Chaz Davies, who finished Race 2 in third position. A result that partially comforts the Welsh rider and shows his resilience after the difficulties encountered on Friday and Saturday. Giugliano, on the other hand, faced an opposite fate and, after barely missing the victory in Race 1, was unfortunately forced to play defense due to some unexpected grip issues, whose cause is yet to be determined.
Taking second and fourth position respectively after a positive start, Davies and Giugliano fought from the early phases of the race to match the pace of the leading couple composed by Sykes and Rea. The Welshman showed significant progress compared with the previous days, managing to set his pace in the low 1:28 mark and holding third position until the checkered flag. Giugliano was hindered by some unforeseen problems instead, mostly under braking, which prevented him from showing his previous competitiveness and caused him to struggle and finish in seventh position.
After seven rounds, Davies (231 points) and Giugliano (147 points) occupy third and fourth position in the championship respectively, while Ducati is second in the Manufacturers standings with 268 points. The WorldSBK championship will resume action the weekend of July 17-19 in Misano for the eighth round, in preparation of which the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will have a two-day test on the Italian track next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 3rd
“It’s definitely good to step back on the podium after the difficulties we’ve encountered here in Donington. Most of all, it was important to score a positive result after not being able to finish the race yesterday. I think it all began with our problems on Friday, and yesterday I probably pushed a bit too hard, but we’re here to win races and you have to give it a try when you’re in the lead. We know we can do better, there are certainly a few aspects under which we can improve, but it was difficult to beat the Kawasakis on this track. Today, we’ve made some good progress also thanks to the data we gathered yesterday during the race, and the goal is to get to Misano in a different position. We’ll prepare the next round with two days of tests next week, and the first objective will be to improve our results from 2015.”
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) – 7th
“This weekend left a bittersweet taste in our mouth. After a strong race yesterday, we were hoping to make another step forward to be competitive until the very end of the race. Instead, we had some problems under braking and in corner entry, still to be clarified, which were detrimental to our performance. Here in Donington there are 3 or 4 hard-braking corners where it’s possible to make the difference, and we lost a lot of time each lap there. Still, yesterday’s second place can’t be taken away from us, and now we need to work harder to make sure we don’t run into similar stumbling blocks in the future and keep improving. I can’t wait to race in front of our fans in Misano, a track where we’ve been usually quite competitive.”
Serafino Foti, Team Manager
“Despite some difficulties faced throughout the weekend, we were able to take two more podiums with Davide and Chaz, even though we would have liked to do more. The gap in the championship increased, but we’ve shown once again we can be competitive on any track. We need to look forward and keep believing in our goals, always, as the season is just half-way and there are still 300 points up for grabs.”
