After Marco Melandri’s second place in Race 1, the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team took another the podium in Race 2 at Brno (Czech Republic) with Chaz Davies, who finished third. The Welshman made a clear step forward since yesterday getting off to a strong start from second row, and quickly pulled away from the second group to defend his position until the checkered flag.
Melandri, on the other hand, suffered an unlucky fate after a blistering start from third row that quickly saw him take the lead with a series of spectacular passes before being forced to go wide due to a rear-brake-lever issue. Once he rejoined the race, the Italian climbed back to 15th position, also taking the fastest lap with a 2:00.176.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi, on track with the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team, took home his best WorldSBK result so far in sixth position. After seven rounds, Davies (205 points) and Melandri (157 points) are respectively second and fifth in the championship, while Rinaldi (54 points) is 14th. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will return to the track at Laguna Seca (United States) for the eighth round of the WorldSBK Championship, scheduled for June 22-24, while the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team will resume action the following round at Misano (Italy).
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 3rd
“We finally made a step forward after a difficult couple of days, where we struggled with the setup and low grip levels. Despite still not having the best feeling, it was enough to put me in a position to hold my own and not drop off in the end of the race. We want to do better, but I’m really happy to be back on the podium. It’s important for the morale of the team, and we’ll keep plugging away without giving up. This is my ‘thank you’ to my crew, who worked so hard. We recovered some points on our rivals but the priority is to get the feeling back 100 percent and hopefully we’ll take it to the next level soon.”
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #33) – 15th
“Looking at our pace today, it would have been enough to get the win, so to finish in 15th position is disappointing. We had a lot of bad luck, because I was feeling good and once I was in the lead I was trying to push harder to pull away, but the rear-brake foot lever broke and I was forced to go wide at turn 3. Still, I wanted to finish the race to collect important information ahead of Laguna Seca. Looking at the bright side, we regained our confidence after improving the bike’s stability so I’m looking forward to the next round, where we can surely fight for good results.”
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team #21) – 6th
“This is a great way to finish what’s been a tough weekend, with my best result of the year so far. Yesterday we were fast but I crashed, and today in WUP we’ve made another step forward. The race was fun, but in the final laps I was struggling with the tires because it was hotter than yesterday, and after the crash I thought P6 was OK. Now we will skip Laguna Seca, but I’ll cheer for Ducati and I can’t wait to go to Misano for my home race.”
Marco Zambenedetti, Technical Coordinator on track for Ducati Corse
“Today’s race leaves us only halfway happy. Chaz managed to improve his feeling with the bike compared with yesterday and rode a solid race to step back on the podium, while Marco missed a probable win due to bad luck. We’ll do our best to allow both of them to show their full potential at Laguna Seca.”
