CHAZ Davies enhanced his hopes of securing second place in the World Superbike Championships (WSBK) in Spain last weekend.

The Presteigne star endured a turbulent weekend but managed to end on the podium in both races of the 12th round in Jerez to climb to second in the overall standings.

Davies began the opening race in eighth place on the grid before prevailing in a 19 lap battle with Kawasaki rider Tom Skyes to claim second place behind champion elect Jon Rea.

The Aruba.it Racing - Ducati rider was frustrated in race two after being involved in a contact which resulted in a crash and race re-start.

However Davies kept his composure to snatch third place, just behind team-mate Marco Melandri while Kawasaki’s Rea completed a Spanish double to all but ensure the 2017 title.

Davies said: “I’m really happy with the result, to get on the podium twice wasn’t easy for us. I think we did the best we could this weekend.

“It was clear it wasn’t going to be an easy round for us since Friday morning, the new tarmac threw us a bit of a curveball and we had all sorts of obstacles to jump over, but we reacted quite well.

“It would have been a tall order to fight for the win but the main goal was to take some points off from Sykes and now we’re exactly even, so I’m satisfied with that. “

Davies now heads to the season finale in Qatar level pegging with Sykes on 363 points.

Davies said: “In 2016 we did really well in Qatar so I hope to start from where we left off last year.”

Stefano Cecconi, Aruba CEO and team principal, backed Davies and Melandri to end the campaign on a high.

“To see both Marco and Chaz on the podium at the end of a difficult round makes us proud,” said Cecconi. “Together with the whole team, they showed great determination, putting up a show and finishing strong.

“We’ll start over from here to take full advantage of our potential in Qatar and finish the season on the top step of the podium.”