SBK Thailand – Chaz Davies takes a dominant victory!

Bruno Gomes

March 25, 2018

Chaz Davies was unstoppable in Chang! Photo credit: Ducati Corse

After a not so perfect start of the season in at Phillip Island, Chaz Davies showed in race two of the World Superbike round in Chang International Circuit that he is one of the best riders around, taking a dominant victory in this Thai round.

In the beginning of the race it was the PATA Yamaha riders, Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes, that got into the lead and seemed to be moving away from the field, but Aruba.it Ducati rider Chaz Davies climbed up the order and decided he wasn’t going to watch the Yamaha pair ride in front until the end of the race.

Davies was the fastest around Chang International Circuit, and his lap times allowed him to pass Lowes and then after some late braking and fast acceleration, he also took first place from Van der Mark before the race reached its midway point.

From then on, Davies and his Ducati were untouchable, Van der Mark could only watch as his rival ran away from him in the lead, and a few seconds behind Alex Lowes had to content with third place, even if his Yamaha R1 showed some problems in the final two laps, with smoke coming out of the engine. But the R1 lasted to the end, and Lowes got a well-deserved podium.

Jonathan Rea was far behind, with the 3-times champion making some mistakes and running wide in a few occasions during race two. But Rea is always looking for the best result possible, and so the Kawasaki rider pushed right to the end of the race, and in the last laps he overcame Spanish rider Xavi Forés, grabbing an important fourth place that lets him climb up to first place in the championship standings.

With these results, the overall standings now have Jonathan Rea in the lead with 69 points, closely followed by Marco Melandri – who didn’t show good pace in Thailand – with 67 points, while the surprise of the moment goes to Xavi Forés, an independent rider, that stands in third position with 60 points.