Chaz Davies is – annoyingly for him – showing great pace but not quite being able to challenge for a WorldSBK race win.

Strangely, it seems, he does not blame a starting position of 11th after Superpole as the main reason. He made it all clear, saying “I wouldn’t say the grid really played a big part in our race today. I did not have good pace in the first ten laps, maybe eight laps, until things levelled off.

“I was actually quite well positioned in the early laps and as soon as I got past Sykes and Toprak pretty early, I then set about Bautista.

“My pace at that point was not strong enough. But it seems like maybe we saved everything a little bit better than the others in the last lap. We need to try to not lose the performance in the last laps but we need to gain something in the first eight laps.”

Davies said he experimented to make up for his lack of early pace. “I tried a few things out there with riding style but it did not seem to do a lot. So I think we need to look at the set-up. I tried everything that I have got, to try and find more traction in the early laps but it is not happening.”

Davies was asked if third in the championship, where he finished day one at Catalunya albeit tied on points with Razgatlioglu, and he replied, “Well, yes to maintain third or better would be ideal, but to be honest I am not even thinking about it at the moment, just trying to bring home the best results I can and try to improve the bike.”

He had improving pace, enough for the podium of course, but today was going to be Rea’s race it seemed, even of Davies was starting further up.

Maybe it would have helped me to get closer to Scott today, but I don’t think the grid was the main thing about the race. It was more about the pace in the first eight to ten laps was not quite good enough. I had clear track ahead of me but my laps were not fantastic.

“For me, obviously if I can improve the grid but me and Scott struggled in the qualifying. It was terrible. Zero, zero grip. It was crazy.”

Davies nor anybody else seems to know why either. “No, I am hoping Ducati do, but nobody seems to have a good answer at the moment.”