Chaz Davies says it was essential to salvage some much-need World Superbike championship points at Laguna Seca with third place in race two after conceding ground to his title rivals.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider suffered a frustrating off in race one while leading at the iconic US circuit which hampered his race two chances without a race distance of data to call upon.

Despite this, Davies battled impressively in the lead pack but having used the majority of tyre life by the closing laps the Welsh rider settled for third and a first rostrum in four races.

"After what happened in race one, I concentrated on finishing the race first of all, initially focusing just on my rhythm," Davies said. "I wanted to avoid being particularly aggressive early on, but I was stuck in the group at the start and had to ask a lot to the rear tyre to recover on Davide Giugliano and Tom Sykes.

"I think we could have won today, but I went wide at the Corkscrew, possibly because of the wind, and in the last laps I didn't have enough grip to try more overtakes. It was important to go into the break with a podium, and we'll use this time to understand where to improve."

After the Laguna Seca round Davies has slipped to 108 points behind World Superbike championship leader Jonathan Rea and 62 points off second place rider Sykes going into the extended summer break. Action resumes for round 10 at the Lausitzring on the 16-18 September.