CHAZ Davies faces a race against time to prove his fitness for the tenth round of the World Superbike Championship (WSBK) in Portugal this weekend.

The Presteigne and Ducati star suffered a collarbone injury while testing last week but remained confident of recovering to line up in Portimao, a circuit where Davies has tasted success three times in his career.

Davies currently sits in second place in the WSBK standings and needs to race to maintain his pursuit of Kawasaki’s Jon Rea

Davies said: “The collarbone injury was just not ideal but I felt progress during these days which is the most important thing.

“We’re going to see how Friday goes and then take it step by step without rushing things too much early on.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be OK once I step on the Panigale R but we need to make sure we build our way into the round and avoid potential bumps on the road before the actual races.

“The test was OK but track conditions should be cooler this weekend so things can change quite a bit in terms of set-up and feeling.

“We left the test with a good direction so we just need to step back on the bike and keep working.”