Chaz is late bloomer
It’s all too easy to become yesterday’s man. Outpaced by Alvaro Bautista last season and Scott Redding this, Chaz Davies proved that the fire still burns brightly as he fought old foe Jonathan Rea for victory in Aragon on Sunday. If only the Welshman could qualify and start a bit better…
Thirty times a winner and three times championship runner-up, Davies has been slated in recent months. He’s never clicked with the V4 Panigale, it’s been said. Qualifying ninth at MotorLand – where he’s won seven times – delayed his progress to second in Race 1 while, in the Sprint, fifth was all he could muster.
Race 2 saw him in second by the end of Lap 4 but only after a series of wheelies off the start. With four laps to go, he twice overhauled Jonathan Rea as they fought for the lead following the reigning champion’s unforced error. Newly-turned father Davies may be happy with the team’s hard work on new components, but not with his race starts.
“The team has given me a good tool to fight with,” says the man currently out of contract for 2021, with some suggesting Michael Ruben Rinaldi will replace him. “While I’m happy with second, I’m not very happy with my qualifying or my starts. In the last race, from the second row, I was excited to get away with Johnny, Scott and everybody else, but got such a bad start I had to do all that work again. I had to use more tyre to come through and, in the end, didn’t have much left to fight with. Nevertheless, it was a very cool race with Johnny.”
‘I had to use more tyre to come through’