Chaz Davies had to nurse his Ducati to the finish in fifth place in the World Superbikes race in Holland on Sunday.

The Knighton-born rider was hoping to follow up his third spot in Saturday’s race at Assen which meant he started seventh on the grid.

Davies slipped to 10th after going wide on the opening corner but forced his way back into fifth spot mid-way through the race.

But any thoughts of challenging for fourth were ended by a problem at the rear of his aruba.it Racing Ducati bike.

The 31-year-old is second in the standing now 30 points behind reigning champ Jonathan Rea who finished second behind Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes.

Davies said: ”Looking at the positives, we didn’t give away too many points, but today the race was a bit of a struggle.

“We changed the bike and in the early stages we suffered with edge grip and turning on the exit, then we had a strange vibration on the rear.

“We still need to find out what caused it, but it forced us to go slower in the final laps and basically just bring it home.

“We struggled a bit here but we have a good base and we just need to react more quickly.

“Imola has been good in the past few years so I hope for better fortunes there.”

The next round at Imola in Italy is on May 11-13.

Sykes bagged his first win of the season to end Rea’s eight race winning streak at Assen and also deny him a record 13th win at the same track.

Davies 2018 Results

Rd 1: Australia (Phillip Island) Qualified: 5th
Race 1: 3rd Race 2: DNF (crash)
Championship Position: 7th – 16 points (1st Marco Melandri 50points)

Rd 2: Thailand (Buriram) Qual: 9th
Race 1: 3rd Race 2: 1st
Champ Pos: 4th – 57 pts (1st Jonathan Rea – 69pts)

Rd 3; Aragon (spain) Qual: 11th
Race 1 (Restarted) 2nd Race 2: 1st
Champ Pos: 2nd – 102 pts (1st Rea – 114pts)

Rd 4: Dutch (Assen) Qual: 8th
Race 1: 3rd Race 2: 5th
Champ Pos: 2nd – 129 pts (1st Rea – 159pts)