At the most recent championship round, held at Misano just over one week ago, the team did not collect the kind of results that it had perhaps hoped for at its home track. Although Chaz Davies brought his 1199 Panigale home in fourth place in race 1, he then retired from race 2 after a crash. Davide Giugliano, second on the starting grid, had high hopes for the races but was penalised for a jump start in race 2 and thus concluded the day with an eighth and ninth place finish.

During last year’s Portuguese race weekend, Davies rode his bike to a fifth and sixth place finish. Giugliano had a more difficult day, crashing out of race 1 and finishing race 2 in ninth position. This year, both Ducati Superbike men will be hoping for strong results with their 1199 Panigale bikes, strengthened as a result of progress made thus far.

With seven of fourteen rounds completed, Chaz Davies lies in sixth position in the general standings, followed by teammate Davide Giugliano, seventh. Ducati currently places fourth in the manufacturer’s standings.

Comments ahead of the event:

Chaz Davies – Ducati Superbike Team #7

“Portimao has been a fairly ‘average’ track for me in terms of past results. Heading there in July, in presumably hot conditions, might not be favourable to us, having seen the problems we were having in Sepang and Misano. So we’ll need to continue working to try and increase the levels of grip as, although everyone loses grip to some extent in the heat, for some reason we seem to be suffering a little more. If we can make headway there, I think we can obtain some decent results this weekend.”

Davide Giugliano – Ducati Superbike Team #34

“I’ve never had the best results at Portiamo and I don’t know why because I really like the track – I’ve just not been able to make the most of it. Having said that, this year I had the chance to test there at the start of the season and so I’ll definitely arrive more prepared than in previous years. During the Misano weekend we worked a lot on the bike and electronics in order to be better prepared for hot conditions and although we’re not quite there yet, we’ve definitely taken a big step in the right direction, and so I hope grip is less of an issue at Portimao. Misano was a difficult race day but we collected a lot of useful data that we can use in upcoming races, starting with this weekend.”