Chaz Davies reckons he has laid the foundations for a World Supoerbikes title bid after a double second place finish in Australia.

The Knighton-born flier was again beaten into second place by reigning champ Jonathan Rea at Phillip Island after a last lap battle on Saturday.

But it was another close run thing with Davies losing out by just 0.025seconds.

Davies ended the opening weekend second in the standings with 40 points – 10 behind Ulsterman Rea.

But the 30-year-old is confident that other tracks will be far more suited to his Ducati than the circuit near Melbourne.

Davies said: “This race was a bit more difficult to manage, given the hotter conditions.

“The glass is half full though, without a doubt. We tried something different but we lost a a couple of bike lengths here and there and we just couldn’t pass Rea before the finish line.

“When you look at the full picture, this is a really positive result.

“It would be easy to be disappointed because we barely missed two wins, but historically this has never been a favourite circuit for me.

“Sometimes I lost precious points here, so two second places are a good building block for the rest of the season.”

But with tyre wear and a closely-knit pack of front runners, Davies found himself in the lead on the penultimate lap before being passed by Rea.

The Kawasaki rider then held off Davies’ last lap attack to triumph though the margin was even closer than Saturday when the duo were separated by just 0.042secs.

Davies’ new team-mate Marco Melandri finished third.

The next round is in Thailand from March 10-12.