Chaz Davies battled his way to a podium spot in the second World Superbikes race at Donngton Park.

The Powys-born rider, who crashed in Saturday’s first race before finishing eighth, found himself 17th after being forced off the track early on to avoid a collision.

But Davies forced his way back through the field though there was little he could do to stop a Kawasaki one-two with Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati ace said: “It would have been nice to get away with the Kawasaki pair.

“But third place is all we could ask for. We had a terrible start, which made it for a very difficult race.

“We had to get through a lot of traffic, I was trying to avoid riders crashing in front of me, and it felt like playing a game of Mario Kart.

“To be here, on the podium, in front of the home fans, was the most important thing.

“Towards the end, when I was getting closer to Michael van der Mark, I didn’t have great grip because I had to stress the rear a lot to come back through the field.

“I just dug in, trying not to make mistakes and figure out where to pass really quickly. It was close racing.

“Anyway I’m confident for the rest of the season because this track has always been difficult for us and we can take a lot of positives going into Misano.”

Rea ended Sykes’ nine race winning record at Donington to extend his lead over his Kawasaki team-mate to 55 points.

Davies is 20 points further back in third spot in the championship going into the next round at Ducati’s home track of Misano in Italy on June 16-18.

The team will have a two-day test on the track next Wednesday and Thursday.