Chaz Davies has been unable to match the prowess of his brand new team-mate Alvaro Bautista so far. Or get the most out of his own new bike in 2019, but he made a set-up breakthrough over Saturday night in Thailand.

“The step was made definitely overnight,” Davies told bikesportnews.com. “Still got 50 per cent of what I need but it just gets harder and harder to get the other bit. The most important thing is giving us a direction to go in. I am much happier today with our overall pace.”

The Welshman thinks it may be something to carry forward to Aragon, and everywhere else. “I think so,” he offered. “It is not a circuit-related change it is more me on the bike, body position and that sort of thing.”

Davies is a vast 106 points behind championship leader Bautista now, with only 18 points on the board so far. “It is what it is. You have to be open minded about everything.”

Davies’ increase in performance saw him mixing it up more, particularly with Melandri, to their mutual cost, it appears. “With Marco, he was a little bit over the limit for sure,” said Davies. “I asked him about it and he conveniently didn’t seem to remember that he was 15kmph too fast and took me wide and lost a lot of positions. He passed me the lap before really clean, but that next lap was a bit of a lunge.

He had a complete and utter lunge. If I wouldn’t have given way, I would not have stayed in the race. But that is racing, so we move on.

Davies railed against a suggestion the Ducati was simply faster than its rivals in sector one and two, the site of all the big straights. “Did you watch any of the video with me on the bike, in amongst the other guys?” said Davies.

“The advantage with me sat on it is not what it is on the other side of the garage, because he (Bautista) has 15kg on me. He obviously has a great feeling where he rolls through turn one quick and gets the throttle open early. It is a combination.

“If you watch the race back, you will see what I mean. With Alvaro’s weight on it, you are seeing a difference. But with myself on it, or Rinaldi, or Eugene - go check it when we are by ourselves. It is not actually as big a difference as Alvaro is able to make with it.”

Davies, who crashed in race one but still finished for one point, then was eighth in the sprint race for two points, got none for race three, after his big suffered a technical problem at turn five.

Next up for Davies is arguably his favourite circuit, Motorland Aragon, in early April.