In the second part of his latest exclusive column for Crash.net, former 250GP rider Chaz Davies recalls his first day as a MotoGP rider, and the problems of combining a ride in the top flight with his existing AMA commitments...

Ten minutes after being approached, I was signing IRTA paperwork allowing me to ride for the Pramac d'Antin Ducati team.

I had a quick briefing with one of the safety officers for MotoGP, just informing me of the few different rules and procedures to those in 125/250cc. Straight after that, I was running down to the Celtic Racing set-up was to grab leathers, boots, gloves, back protector, earplugs etc. Then I went straight to the porta-office building of Pramac D'Antin. Alex Hoffman is one of the only guys in that paddock who is a very similar size to me, so I tried on his leathers as they had all the right sponsor patches for the team. Luckily, the fit was just about perfect - just imagine if I'd been asked to replace Dani Pedrosa!

From there, I went over to the garage for the first time. By now, there were about three minutes to go until the start of the session. I had a quick brief from my chief mechanic about the dos and don'ts and that was it, the light was green with no chance to even sit on the bike to check bars, brake/gear lever positioning. Time to go!

My first impressions of the bike were quite strange. It wasn't going to do anything for you - if you wanted to go fast on it, then you had to make it work. You had to be going reasonably hard on the brakes to get the feeling and the bite that the carbon gives, and, on my first lap, I was quite surprised at the power. It didn't feel that much at first - until I realised I was only using half of the bike's capabilities! It wasn't until I had completed the first lap and got back to where I could open it up on the start/finish straight that I could really get a feel for just how much power it had. It doesn't stop pulling, the feeling and rate of acceleration felt the same when changing from first into second as it did from fifth to sixth. It was by far the fastest thing I have ever ridden.

It was a little unnerving because I was still learning the track, but now I had to learn it on a MotoGP bike with God knows what horsepower and 19 of the best riders in the world around me. On my third lap, Carlos Checa passed me - then looked back, waving his fist, which p*ssed me off. Fair enough if I was deliberately in his road with five

minutes to go in qualifying, but it was nothing like that. Throughout the session, I was improving with every lap I did. I got eight in my first stint, the fastest being 1min 29.1secs, and ten in my second, getting down to 1min 27.3secs. Then, in my final seven laps, I managed a 1min 26.4, leaving me 3.4 secs off the fastest time.

I was pretty happy with that for the first outing. Having followed a couple of other riders during the session, I was surprised by the riding style of the 800s. I thought that the corner speed would be a lot higher. It was still high, but everybody's riding style was definitely more based around picking the bike up and getting as much power to the ground as possible. After the session, I had a quick talk with my mechanics about what to change on the bike to make it more my own, but had no time for anything else as I was straight back out on my Supersport bike!

The Supersport qualifying session went fairly well. Having the extra hour of MotoGP practice to learn the track definitely helped, but it was very strange getting on the Yamaha 600 after the Ducati, as you can probably imagine! The two bikes are a long way apart in terms of riding position and massively different in terms of power. Even so, I know my Yamaha well enough that it didn't take me too long to get back into it.

I was in third for the most part of the session, having set a decent time fairly early on. I stopped in the pits as we were having a bit of trouble, as were most people, getting good distance out of the front tyres. The new tarmac at Laguna was very abrasive, making it especially hard on fronts. With a few minutes to go before the end of the session, and a new rear tyre, I went out looking to put in a time that would keep me somewhere in the first couple of rows. My flying lap was scrappy - ideally, I would have liked to have changed the front tyre, but there wasn't enough time - and I could feel the front getting away from me just a little, but came over the line to do my fastest lap.

When I came back to the pits, I was in seventh, but there was still over a minute of the session remaining, so I was definitely expecting to be on the third row. Luckily, however, I finished up in eighth. Not a great qualifying but, as I told my mechanic, there was a definite second to be gained just from myself piecing it together a bit better. I was happy with the bike, but we really needed to try and get some more life out of the front tyre in the morning's practice session.

I was very tired after an eventful day. My wrist was also giving me a bit of grief. For almost as long as I can remember, I have suffered from tendonitis in the left, or clutch, wrist. I have to have the clutch lever pointing downward as much as possible which relieves it a bit but, as the clutch was fairly heavy on the Ducati, it wasn't going to be perfect.

Saturday was going to be another busy day, starting with 60 minutes of MotoGP free practice. Again, I was just planning on doing plenty of laps and building from where I had left off the day before. There was no pressure from myself or the team, and I just wanted to improve. Within four laps, I had bettered my best lap of the day before, getting down to 1min 26.0secs. I plugged away at it bit by bit, and was trying to hone my style to suit the bike every lap. We made some good improvements to the bike, helping it turn in a bit faster and, most importantly, turn better at the apex of the corner. By the end of the session, I was down to 1min 25.2secs, 2.8secs off the fastest time, getting faster and feeling like there was plenty more to come.

After MotoGP, I had no time to talk to my mechanics as I had to run and get out off Hoffman's leathers, get into my own Celtic Racing leathers and get to pit-lane for the start of the Supersport warm-up 15 minutes later. The session went very well, and we managed to improve the look and longevity of the front tyre, although it was still not perfect. I went a second faster than I had qualified and felt pretty good. It was getting to the point where we had to make a couple of tweaks to the bike, but there was a risk because there would be no time to try the bike before the race.

I was excited about MotoGP qualifying and couldn't wait to try out the Bridgestone qualifying tyre. Throughout the session, I did a few consistent laps in mid to high end of the 1min 24 bracket. With 15 minutes to go, it was time for my first Q tyre run. The lap went well and was clean - I focused on not making any mistakes and put trust in the tyre. When cracking on the gas with a Q, it always feels like it's dangerous because you're doing it so much harder and earlier than normal but, once I get out of the corner, I'm always telling myself I could have cracked it on earlier. I came across the line in 1min 24.0, about 1.5secs off pole at the time, and managed to put a few people behind me for the first time in the weekend.

My second Q run wasn't quite so good. I was on a very good lap, but then made a small mistake in the last sector which cost me a few tenths. Unfortunately, I was at the back of the timesheets by the end of the session. Not that it really bothered me too much, but it just would have been nice to have a couple of names behind me. At least I knew that the people who were just in front of me were at their limit and I was still improving every time I got on the bike.

One thing that I was feeling on the bike was the sheer strength needed to muscle it around. I can ride a 600 all day, but a rip-snorting MotoGP Ducati is another beast! It's all about just riding the bike more and more, as eventually your muscles get used to it. I was good for around ten laps but then, after that, my upper body muscles didn't have the endurance to keep me at my maximum. I was having to back it off to the point where I was comfortable.

I never do any weights for Supersport because I don't feel that I need to, but a journalist told me that I shouldn't be admitting that I wasn't strong enough for the bike. I told him there is every reason for me to admit I'm not strong enough, and there's no point in lying about it. The fastest bike I've ever ridden is my R6, and the last time I rode that was almost four weeks ago. I never expected to get asked to ride a MotoGP bike and Laguna is probably one of the most physical tracks on the calendar. Add to that the point that, in the early part of the weekend, I was probably making it harder work than it needed to be until I got fully comfortable and had adjusted my style to suit the bike.

Fitness wasn't a problem - my lungs are more than capable and I'm sure I'm in better shape than quite a few of the riders out there - but I just didn't have the endurance in my upper body. If I was to ride a MotoGP bike full-time, then that would definitely be something that I would work on.

Chaz#157

Next time: Chaz tells us exactly what it was like to make his MotoGP race debut on one of the most daunting tracks on the calendar...