Chaz Davies got his World Superbikes season up-and-running on the first day of testing in Jerez on Tuesday.

The Knighton-born flier clocked the third quickest time on his Ducati only bettered by the Kawasaki duo of Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes.

Davies is one of the early title favourites having dominated the end of last season when he stormed to victory in seven of the last eight races.

That left the 29-year-old third in the final standings as Ulsterman Rea retained his title ahead of 2013 champ Sykes.

Davies was obviously chomping at the bit as he was the first rider on the Spanish track in the morning on his 2017-configured Panigale R.

He eventually clocked a best time of one minute 40.784secs to finish 0.6 secs adrift of Rea.

Davies’ new team-mate Marco Melandri clocked 1:40.812 on his World Superbikes comeback.

The test finishes Wednesday with the riders returning to the Spanish track for another two day test early next month.

Davies will then have a two-day test in Phillip Island ahead of the opening races of the 13-round season in Australia from February 24-26.