Chaz Davies boosted his chances of bagging his first World Superbikes win of the season in Spain this weekend after an impressive display in practice.

The Powys-born flier finished second on the time-sheets on the Motorland Aragon track where he roared to Ducati’s first win last season.

Davies was just edged out by 0.3secs by Huddersfield’s Tom Sykes who won the second race at the last round in Thailand to end Kawasaki team-mate Jonathan Rea’s perfect start.

But Davies’ consistent races pace around the track that he clearly likes shows he should be contending for a 10th career win on Saturday and Sunday.

The 29-year-old already has a second and third place finish from the opening two rounds in Australia and Thailand and is clearly relishing the return to Europe with his Aruba.it outfit.

Davies said: “I’m quite happy with the performance.

“The Panigale R was competitive right away after the tests, and we only made small adjustments to the setup.

“We just need to find a bit more grip. I like the new exhaust, apparently it gives us a bit more power, but we need to keep working on this area.

“Given the weather conditions, tyre choice will also play a pivotal role towards the races, so we’ll crunch all the data and then focus on pace.”

Sykes clocked a rapid one minute 50.712s to take top spot from Davies who had set the pace in the first practice session earlier.

Holland’s Michael van der Mark was third on his Honda with reigning champ Jonathan Rea – who has won three of the first four races – back in sixth spot