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Phillip Island WorldSBK: Davies '45 per cent there' with bike feel

Chaz Davies found the Phillip Island WorldSBK test at least as tough in terms of lap times as any of the previous ones, where a long-standing back problem came to light.

Looking after his physical approach has paid some dividends, as he said after two full days of testing in Australia. “My physical condition is all right,” affirmed the Aruba Ducati rider. “First and foremost probably that is one of the positives of the day and I definitely feel a bit better. Physically I feel pretty good so I just need to make sure I do the right things in these next couple of days to keep all that at bay.”

Davies saw his machine setup progress a tad too in Australia. “On the final morning I found some improvements with the rear,” he said. “It is the first time we have really worked on the rear. We did not really touch too much yesterday, but today it came better this morning, quite instantly, like an overnight improvement.

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“Then we did not make too many more strides after that. Then we started trying to work on the front but really did not make any inroads on that all day. We got data but nothing that really gave me the feeling I was looking for.”

When Davies was told that the first day of the tests was the day that Alvaro Bautista, his fast team-mate and leader on times at the end, suddenly found a real improvement with the front feel of his machine, Davies said, “Alvaro had a relatively smooth winter and got laps in, so I feel like he has got a lot more information than me – so if he has only just found it then it is kind of acceptable that I am a little bit late. We are still searching, really.”

On day one Davies said his feeling with his bike was a mere 40 per cent. After some improvements on day he said it was, “45 per cent.”

Having been improving his front end feel in Jerez, during a previous test, Davies said of his bike right now, “The front feels good and then you try and get more out of it and then to be able to get the right feeling with the front, it is a completely different track, PI.

“It is not just one area, it is like the front feel in the middle of the corner is quite decent, but on the entry the first bit of entry, I am missing a little bit, not just in the faster corners. It is not jus a blanket front end feels better or feels worse, it is just kind of technical.

“We already made some strides with that in Portimao but still a bit of work to do. Obviously Alvaro is showing that the package is there if you have the right feel with it, so it is just up top the rest of us lot to find our feet.”

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