Chaz Davies came through one of the toughest weekends of his World Superbikes career with another fourth spot in Portugal.

The Powys flier followed up his fourth in Saturday’s race at Portimao despite still recovering from a double bust to his shoulder during the summer break.

Davies led Sunday’s race for 11 laps having started on pole position before reigning three-time champ Jonathan Rea eased past to record his sixth win in a row.

The 31-year-old said: “This was one of the most challenging rounds in my career, for sure.

“Portimao is one of the most physical tracks on the calendar and I haven’t been able to train properly for a long time, not to mention the pain in the right shoulder.

“Honestly, if somebody would have told me that I would get P4 twice here, I wouldn’t have believed it.

“Big thanks to my guys because we’ve made strides with the package through the weekend and we ended up actually quite close to the winners.

“Now we’ve got a few days to train and rehab ahead of Magny Cours to kickstart the final part of the season. I’m looking forward to the next race.”

Davies bravely defended the lead several times despite the problems caused by the shoulder injury which had raised fears he might not be able to compete.

The Ulsterman finally got past 12 laps into the race where the searing track temperatures made it even more difficult.

Davies is now points 116 points behind Rea who could become the first rider to win four Superbikes titles in a row in France.

That would also equal the record of four titles won by fellow Brit Carl Fogarty.

The big threat to Davies’ hopes of finishing runner-up again is Michael van der Mark.

The Dutchman took advantage of the battle between Davies and his Ducati team-mate Marco Melandri to slide past for second spot.

The Yamaha rider is now just 20 points behind Davies with three rounds left and 150 points left to race for.