The Aruba.it Racing - Ducati team climbed back to the top step of the podium at Buriram (Thailand) with Chaz Davies, who sealed a brilliant win in Race 2 starting from third row. The Welshman, who took the lead during lap 7 and progressively broke away from the field, thus claimed the first victory of 2018 and the 28th of his career. A particularly significant win – coupled with the fastest lap of the race in 1:33.627 – since it came on a historically difficult track.
Race 2, on the other hand, did not yield the expected results for Marco Melandri, who was once again hindered by some issues. The Italian showed resilience fighting in the lead group and making several passing maneuvers early on, but was eventually forced to drop his pace and finished in 7th position, nonetheless scoring important points for the championship.
After Round 2, Melandri and Davies are respectively 2nd (67 points) and 4th (57 points) in the championship. The Aruba.it Racing - Ducati team will resume action at Aragon (Spain) for the third round of the 2018 WorldSBK Championship, scheduled for April 13-15.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati #7) – 1st
"It was a fantastic race, something special. To come away with a win here makes me so happy. At Buriram we've always struggled in the past, it's been a long process to get into a race winning position. I want to thank the whole team because they've given me such a great bike today. The Panigale R was working really well, we found a little bit more consistency and I could be more adaptable with the bike. It was quite hectic out there but, if you can get through it OK, it's so much fun. Our package is competitive and in Europe it will be like starting from zero. I'm looking forward to Aragon."
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati #33) – 7th
"We worked hard to come up with some modifications to our setup, which unfortunately didn't yield the expected results. The bike was wobbling a lot also today, and it was a difficult race for us. I tried to ride as hard as I could and fight back, but it wasn't possible to do more today. Anyway, we won't give up. The championship is still long and I'm confident we'll find a solution. We'll head to Aragon to fight even harder."
Serafino Foti, Team Manager
"Chaz rode a tactically perfect race. If we take into account the difficulties we had here in the past, this win is even more important for the team and the people working in Italy. We're obviously very sorry for Marco, who gave everything he had on track, but unfortunately he couldn't have done more. We'll work even harder to make sure both our riders can fully express their potential from Aragon on."
Source and photos: Aruba.it Racing - Ducati team
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