Back pain restrains Davies at Jerez

Overnight back pain restrained Chaz Davies on the second day of the Jerez World Superbike test but confirmed the injury wasn’t connect to his day one off at the Spanish track.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider completed just 18 laps on Thursday at the Spanish circuit as he received treatment for back pains which flared up overnight.

With a second two-day test schedule at Portimao (January 27-28), Davies will aim to complete his full testing programme with the new Ducati V4 R in Portugal ahead of the final pre-season test at Phillip Island before the 2019 season opener at the Australian circuit.

“Unfortunately, it's been a tricky day,” Davies said. “I just felt some pain in my back yesterday [Wednesday]. It had nothing to do with the crash, but it got worse overnight.

“I managed to get treatment twice so I was still able to get some laps in, which was very important. It seems we're going in the right direction.

“Today we focused on the engine, and in the end the lap time was okay given the short amount of time we had on track, but I think we could have made bigger improvements.

“Next stop is Portimão, a completely different track, and the foremost priority will be to complete our full program before we head to Australia.”

Davies completed a total of 58 laps at the Jerez test compared to team-mate Alvaro Bautista’s 103 laps across the two days.

Bautista, who is adapting to the challenges of World Superbikes including new electronics, Pirelli tyres and a new bike having arrived from MotoGP, was buoyed by his progress on his basic riding position and setup.

“It's been a couple of positive days,” Bautista said. “After the winter break, it was important to get back on track, in order to readjust to the speed but also to get accustomed to the new bike.

“We're still focusing on riding position and the base setup in general. We tried some changes that I've liked, and now we'll make more evaluations at Portimão, a track that I don't know, so it'll be very interesting.”