CHAZ Davies believes man and machine are now at one after recording a fourth top-10 finish of the season at World Superbike round seven in San Marino.

Davies travelled to Misano fresh off the back of his best weekend of 2012 at round six in America at the end of May where he recorded finishes of seventh and fourth.

And, despite lining up back in 21st on the grid after qualifying on Saturday, the ParkinGO MTC Racing rider battled his way to sixth in race one a day later.

Race two ended in unfortunate circumstances when Davies, while riding 10th, came off with nine laps to go but he is now a lot happier with what he is sitting on top of.

“We changed something the night before race day so as to stop putting so much weight on the front of the bike and it was way better,” said Davies.

“It is not just one problem that we have had, it is a small thing that rolls into another and that rolls into another.

“Every time we have made changes we have moved the wheelbase or extended the front but we have never really changed the fork handle.

“And it seemed to give me a little bit more confidence with the front and there wasn’t as much pushing on the tyre and then under steering.

“I could get it turning a bit better at the first part of the corner but, not just that, I can take confidence from doing that and get a better exit.”

Davies’ off in race two meant he failed to finish while Max Biaggi was toasting a second win at Misano to become only the second rider to double up this season.

Biaggi also now leads the overall standings meanwhile Davies, who is 14th with 49 points, has a positive outlook for the second half of the season.

“It was fun riding the bike on race day, a lot more fun than the rest of the weekend,” he added. “I enjoyed it and the bike was consistent.

“It wasn’t spectacular, just consistent, and it seemed like we had a much more consistent bike than everybody else.”

l British Eurosport is the Home of Bikes, showing all MotoGP, World Superbike and British Superbike races on Sky channels 410 and 411 and Virgin Media channels 521 and 525 as well as eurosportplayer.

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