Chaz Davies’ weekend at Motorland Aragon was almost all firsts, he scored his maiden front row start and then went on to win both races, giving his BMW Motorrad Goldbet team their first double victory of the season and moving up to second in the championship standings just 22 points from Sylvain Guintoli, making him now a strong championship contender.
“For me it is just an amazing day.
I cannot explain how happy I am.
What a weekend! My first victory with BMW and then the double win – this is something I was hoping to achieve this year but I did not expect it to happen this early.
I want to thank BMW and everybody who supported me.
I knew coming here that we are going to be strong.
BMW has done a fantastic job over the last month we had off since Australia, and everybody was working very hard.
In addition, I now really feel that the RR is mine, I feel so comfortable on it.
In race one, the DNFs by Tom and Eugene definitely made it easier.
In race two it seemed that I had a comfortable lead, but to be honest I had to push a lot.
One of the most impressing things is the fact that we have done a lot of testing in Jerez but not here in Aragón, where nearly everybody else has been.
So to win with that up against us, is quite impressive and it is credit to the work BMW has done.
We will now keep being focused, continue to work hard and look forward to Assen, another race track I really like,” said Davies.
Marco Melandri’s weekend at Aragon was an uphill struggle, chatter on his BMW S1000RR kept him from qualifying well – he was 8th – that his team only resolved in warm-up practice.
In race 1, despite clawing his way to a provisional second place, Melandri hit a neutral on his bike that dropped him back to fifth and he finally recovered two positions to take a third place podium.
In race 2, a wrong tire choice – temperatures were higher as were lap times – consigned him to a fifth place.
“After race one I was still pretty happy.
At the start I wasn’t very comfortable with the front end and I made a big mistake trying to catch the guys in front of me at the end of the main straight.
After that I got into a good rhythm and improved into second place.
I thought that would be my position in the end but unfortunately the bike went into neutral between third and second gear.
But I finished in third place which was not so bad for me.
In race two, based on my experience with the 16.
5 inch tyre, I chose a harder tyre for the front.
But with the 17 inch tyre, it worked differently to how I expected.
I had less grip and could not ride properly.
In the beginning I pushed very hard, but then I preferred not to risk too much.
For me, it wasn’t the best weekend.
I had no pain in my shoulder, but by the end of the race I had no strength left in my arms.
I am looking forward to the next race in Assen, when we will be in a better shape.
Congratulations to Chaz.
He rode awesome – well done!” commented Melandri, who is now fourth in the standings.