Aruba Ducati’s Chaz Davies struggled for rear grip in both of today’s Donington Park World Superbike races and said he was having to wrestle his Panigale in order to take two podium finishes.

The Welshman had a problem with launch control right before the start of race two and then had to fight his way back past Alex Lowes, team-mate Davide Giugliano - who had the same lack of grip - and finally Leon Haslam to bag the final podium spot.

“I had something weird happen with the launch control. It basically didn’t work. It was activated and working, then it de-activated and re-activated just before the lights went out which put me off and my start was rubbish,” said Davies, speaking to bikesportnews.com

“I lost the rear a couple of times on the first lap and I thought there was something amiss with the electronics but it seemed to sort itself out once I got a couple of laps in the bank.

“Then I had a bit of work to do to come through. It wasn’t part of the plan, it was the way the ball bounced. I’m happy with the double podium but not with the distance to Tom but he is pretty special here. We need to try and bridge the gap.”

Davies says that having the rear Pirelli spin isn’t a problem in itself but the way the Panigale reacts when the grip returns is what makes life difficult and reducing power on the fly to smooth things out just makes the bike too slow.

“I felt my grip was a little worse than race one. It was a bit more rideable, but it was spinning more. I was fighting the whole way to be honest, it wasn’t a comfortable race, for sure.

“It’s not just grip, it’s the way the bike reacts when we lose grip and recover it, that’s part of the problem. If the bike spins, it’s not a big deal but it’s how it reacts. It’s more related to the rear but electronics could help.

“We have done a lot of work to try and add and take away power in certain places but it’s difficult to keep the amount of power we need in the bike and keep the chassis under control. A couple of times I took away power to try and be a little smoother but then it’s not enough power. You can’t have the penny and the bun.”

Davies hasn’t given up on the title chase but the points gap to Jonathan Rea is now 125 points, or five race wins, and he says he thinks now wins will come when the circuit suits his bike and style more.

“Stopping the Kawasakis is going to be circumstantial I think. In race two at Aragon, I could do my own rhythm, use my own lines and ride my own race but the way the bike is working at the moment I have to do things a little differently to how I would want.

“At certain times we will be there but at certain tracks they are in a different league. Jonathan is so far ahead but I will put up a fight.”