Sighting lap brake failure nearly wrecks race for Davies

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Chaz Davies says he nearly high-sided off before the Lausitzring opening race even began when he suffered a rear brake failure on the sighting lap heading to the starting grid.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider says he was left in an anxious frame of mind during the pre-race build up on the grid after almost crashing at turn 14, the final corner of the circuit, when he was hit by a rear brake issue which required changing on the grid.

Davies paid tribute to his mechanics for fixing the brake before the start of the race as he charged from sixth on the grid and into the lead by the second lap before managing his race pace to keep a gap on Jonathan Rea and ease to a fifth victory of the season.

“The sighting lap was pandemonium, I nearly high-sided going into the last corner because of an issue with the rear brake,” Davies said. “That made for a few tense minutes on the grid, because usually you can’t fix something like that in such a short time, but I have a good crew and they fixed to almost entirely, so it was good enough to allow me to do what I needed to do.

“I got a great start and found myself in a good position in the early laps. Once I took the lead, I just tried to set my pace without looking at the lap times and we came out on top. The rhythm was good, but there is still room for improvement ahead of race two.

“We’ll start from ninth position but I think this track offers opportunities for overtaking and we’ve worked on our starts recently, finding more consistency, so I’m in for another interesting race.”