A LAST lap crash cost Presteigne’s Chaz Davies a podium finish in the second race at the first round of the World Superbike Championship at Australia’s Phillip Island.

In the opening race of the season the Ducati riding Davies came second to last year’s champion, Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea in a Great Britain one-two.

The second race of the round then saw a crash ensue as Davies went for the win, but his bid was scuppered in a last lap scrap, with Rea running out winner and Davies re-mounting to finish 10th.

Both battled out the championship last year, with Rea prevailing as the winner

Davies attempted to out-brake the Kawasaki rider in both races, with a front end fall at turn four in race one, and a similar manoeuvre occurring in race two.

Both were in vain as Rea scooped wins in both races, but Davies said he wasn’t disappointed in the way he rode at the opening weekend.

He said: “I won't apologise for crashing like that.

“I can brake pretty late and pull it up but there’s a certain limit the front tyre will put up with and I found that. As soon as I hit the brakes I knew I was tight, I was deep and I was asking a lot. I felt like it was a move that I didn’t necessarily have to make.

“I got blasted down the start finish straight when I was trying to make the break.”

Davies took heart from two daring displays, and sits fourth in the championships following the race.

Rival Rea revealed after the race he and his crew had adapted his bike into an ‘anti-Chaz bike’ in an attempt to fend off the Welshman’s late braking.

He said: “Going into the last lap I knew Chaz would make a move somewhere. It was a copybook story from yesterday.

“My team gave me a bit of a different bike today, a bike on which I was more confident on the brakes.

“That was growing from Chaz and his moves, like an anti-Chaz bike.

“When he would make them big manoeuvres I would have something to fight back with.

“I knew today if he was going to out-brake me he wasn't going to stop.”