Aruba Ducati's Chaz Davies has admitted to being a little surprised to top the WorldSBK free practice timesheet on day one in Qatar - especially after crashing on lap two of the first session.

The Welshman finished Thursday with a three-tenth advantage over old enemy Jonathan Rea with a time just half a second off the lap record

"It was a bit of a surprise to be honest. The bike felt good and after the crash on lap two this morning, I didn't start the day well," said Davies, speaking at the track.

"I built up the confidence through the rest of FP1 and then worked on the bike in between, picked a direction and it worked so it seems like our base setup isn't too far away at all.

"We’ve just got to work on our race pace tomorrow and I’m confident we can find a little bit more.”