D'Antin MotoGP team impressed and surprised by Chaz Davies

Ducati team boss Luis D’Antin reckons he has been surprised by the impressive performance of British rider Chaz Davies in the American MotoGP.

Davies was thrown in at the deep end yesterday afternoon when he got a last-minute call-up to replace injured German rider Alex Hofmann on the D’Antin GP7 in Laguna Seca.

He had never even sat on a MotoGP bike before yesterday’s second free practice session, but has impressed in his short stint so far, lapping within two seconds of seven-times world champion Valentino Rossi this morning.

He got his first taste of Bridgestone’s qualifying tyres this afternoon and will start tomorrow’s 32-lap race in 20th position, having posted a best time of 1.24.098.
That was just 1.806s off Casey Stoner’s pole position time.

His performance though has caught the eye of Spanish team boss D’Antin, who confirmed to MCN today in Laguna Seca that he had turned to Davies after American Kenny Roberts Junior rejected the chance to ride with Alex Barros.

An approach for American superbike rider Ben Bostrom was also turned down. Bostrom was interested but his Yamaha AMA team not surprisingly refused to release him. Larry Pegram was also in the frame before Davies landed his dream chance in the premier class.

D’Antin told MCN: “He is doing very well and better than I expected. We hope tomorrow he can do something interesting for us in the race. I’m sure he will do a good job. I am very impressed. I was impressed more about his attitude. In one sense he was very nervous but on the other side he is quiet on the bike. He analyses the details very well and I imagine it is not easy to understand this kind of bike.

“First you have plenty of electronic help and then you need some time to understand that. Then you have to be ready to get the help of this electronics and that is one of the most difficult things on this bike. Obviously it is very powerful and MotoGP is not an easy category.”