Podiums and crashes as World Superbikes returns
Chaz Davies secured his third podium in four races to maintain fourth place in the World Superbike championship standings – despite suffering a crash in race two.
Another exciting comeback in the opening race at the Aragon circuit, in Spain, saw the Mid Wales star rise from eighth on the grid to take third.
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider's race pace saw him pass Tom Sykes and Michael Van Der Mark early, before eventually closing in on third-placed Alvaro Bautista, overtaking the Spaniard with three laps to go.
Davies said: "Getting on the podium is always nice even if I must admit that I would have preferred to take a step forward compared to the two second places obtained last weekend.
"The weather conditions were very different and this forced us to work a lot on the bike and tyres.
"I chose to race with the soft tyre but I had to manage from the first laps to finish the race with a good pace unlike (Michael Ruben) Rinaldi, who has a different weight and could push to the maximum. Anyway, I congratulate him for his extraordinary victory."
The second half of the weekend, however, did not go as smooth as 34-year-old Davies claimed fifth in the points-scoring Superpole race before crashing in race two.
Davies again attacked Honda's Bautista for the fourth place as the flag dropped and the Spanish rider eventually crashed.
As the Welshman tried to close the gap with the podium positions, he lost the front end with six laps to go and was forced to retire.
Davies said: "We started well because the feeling in the warm-up was very good and the race pace allowed me to be incisive in the Superpole race.
"Unfortunately, I was not able to reach the podium that would have allowed me to start from the front row in race two, but the feeling was still positive.
"For this reason, I can't understand the reasons of the grip problems we had since the start – maybe the higher temperature affected, maybe the tyre didn't work at its best.
"We will have to understand what happened. It was very frustrating to close the weekend with a crash."
The results leave Davies fourth in the championships standings. The series next heads to Barcelona, Spain, September 18-20.
And there were further crashes for the region's rider's as Newport's Tom Booth-Amos suffered his third accident in as many rounds, before bouncing back in the second World Supersport 300 race to sit 10th in the championship standings.
The 24-year-old's weekend began badly as he received a penalty for ‘riding to slow in several sectors’ and was not allowed to ride Free Practice 2.
After an impressive Superpole, when he climbed up to sixth on the time sheets, the RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki rider was handed another penalty and had to start the race from P11.
Booth-Amos then suffered a crash towards the end of Superpole, but despite a fracture and wound in the fourth finger of his left hand, he was able to start the race, but was forced to retire.
Keen on good results in race two, Booth-Amos pushed his Kawasaki Ninja 400 to the limit and was rewarded with championship points, finishing in 11th place, just a second behind second place.
Team manager Rob Vennegoor: "It’s clear that it wasn’t an easy weekend for us.
"During the races our riders had some hard times, but they kept fighting to the end and that makes me proud and satisfied because that is the way to success.
"We fight for better results at Barcelona over two weeks. Tom Booth-Amos has raced before there so we all are looking forward to it."
