Chaz Davies staged a superb fightback to finish second in the Aragon round of the World Superbikes Championship.

The Knighton-born rider started ninth after Superpole qualifying but came close to overtaking race winner and team-mate Scott Redding on the final lap.

Davies made up five places in the opening six laps at the Motorland track where he has won seven times in his Superbikes career before benefitting from a crash suffered by Alex Lowes.

The 33-year-old then powered his way into second place, overtaking the Kawasaki of reigning champion Jonathan Rea with three laps left.

Davies was catching Redding before running out of laps finishing just three-tenths adrift of his fellow Aruba.it Racing rider.

But his second spot was enough to move him up two places to fourth in the overall standings with 95 points – 62 points adrift of Redding who took the title lead from Rea.

“It is clear that the starting position did not help me, but I got off a good start, and in the first laps, I managed to keep a good pace to recover positions,” said Davies.

“The feeling was positive, and I closed the gap between the leading group and me. I tried to manage the tyres then when I saw that Scott and Rea were gaining advantage I pushed to the maximum. I think if I had one more lap, I could have overtaken Scott, but he was still very good at defending himself without allowing me to attack him”.

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS TOP 5
P1 | 157 – S. Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
P2 | 152 – J. Rea (Kawasaki)
P3 | 113 – T. Razgatlioglu (Yamaha)
P4 | 95 – C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
P5 | 93 – M. Van Der Mark (Yamaha)