The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team, in action at Donington (United Kingdom) for the sixth round of the WorldSBK Championship, finished Race 2 with Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri in 5th and 11th position respectively.
The Welshman and the Italian, starting from second and fourth row respectively, fought as hard as ever. Melandri, who enjoyed a blistering start, managed to get close to the top five early on but was eventually forced to drop the pace due to some riding issues. Davies, on the other hand, mounted a furious comeback after getting penalized in the traffic at the start, climbing back from 12th to 5th position with a spectacular series of overtaking maneuvers.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi, with the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team, wasn’t able to start due to a technical problem that forced him to retire on the grid. After six rounds, Davies (181 points) and Melandri (136 points) are respectively second and fifth in the championship, while Rinaldi (43 points) is 13th. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team and the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team will resume action in Brno (Czech Republic) for Round 7 of the WorldSBK Championship, scheduled for June 8-10, 2018.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 5th
“Today was definitely an improvement since Race 1, though our goal is to finish higher. I felt like I rode a good race overall. When the first drops of rain started to fall, I was fully committed to keep it wide open but there wasn’t enough rain to worry the guys in front of us. I did everything that I could to close the gap from the front, and to some extent I did, but we’ve been struggling a bit too much here. I had to use a little bit of tire to bridge the gap and we couldn’t do better today. Hopefully we can build on what we’ve done here and learn important lessons to apply in Brno.”
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #33) – 11th
“I was hoping to be able to keep yesterday’s rhythm, which would have allowed us to get close to the top five, but unfortunately the changes made didn’t yield the expected results and today the bike was quite nervous and physical to ride, which affected our performance. I simply tried not to make mistakes and take home as many points as possible. Let’s look ahead, to Brno, where we were quite competitive during the tests even though we still need to make a few steps forward to fight at the top once again.”
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team #21) – DNF
“We achieved the best possible result in Race 1, and today during WUP we had made another step forward, but unfortunately a technical problem forced us to retire, finishing a difficult weekend ahead of time. It’s a pity because we’ve been constantly improving so far, but we must make the most of the difficulties too in order to improve, so I’m confident ahead of Brno.”
Serafino Foti, Team Manager
“Chaz and Marco rode with great resilience all weekend, and their speed and talent has never been under discussion, but unfortunately we couldn’t reap the fruits of their hard work and that of the team. We’ll run a detailed analysis and regroup to come back to our levels as soon as possible. Brno is close and we’re keen to bounce back.”
