Chaz Davies saw his brave gamble pay-off in spectacular fashion as he triumphed in the opening race of the World Superbikes round in France.

The Knighton-born rider opted to start with intermediate tyres while his rivals went with wets after overnight rain had drenched the Magny-Cours track.

But the move worked on the drying track as Davies bagged his sixth win of the season by almost 10 secs from Holland’s Michael van der Mark.

The win bettered Davies’ previous best tally for the season of five wins set last year when he finished runner-up in the championship.

The Ducati-ace, 29 said: “I tried to use my brain as much as possible and way up all the factors, which is a lot.

“The drying speed of the track, how wet the track was, how many bikes are out there, the wind, the temperature, everything. You have to take it all into account.

“This isn’t a track that dries very quickly, so I was a little worried about the first laps more than anything because it was proper wet and you know the intermediates aren’t much different to the slicks in terms of compound.

“The first laps were a battle of survival just trying to stay upright. If I didn’t crash in the first laps I was expecting to get taken out because I was so slow.

“But anyway, I stayed upright, didn’t get taken out and I could see the guys going away but I was happy because they didn’t disappear into the distance.

“Then I was thinking, ‘Stay on and don’t do anything stupid, see what happens, let it play out.’

“Sure enough I started taking two and three seconds a lap and at that point I knew it was game on for the win so I was very, very happy.”

Tom Sykes finished third from Kawasaki team-mate Rea to cut his deficit to Ulster’s reigning champ to 44 points with 125 left to race for.

The duo, along with Honda’s van der Mark, had both needed pit-stops to switch tyres as Davies stayed out.

Davies’ win kept his slim title hopes alive though he is still 86 points behind his brother-in-law Rea.

The second race at Magny-Cours is today.
endig