Aspar Ducati’s Eugene Laverty has set his sights on a place inside the top 10 of the world championship standings in his final MotoGP appearance, before returning to World Superbikes in 2017.
The Northern Irishman made his premier class debut in 2015 with the Aspar squad, riding an open Honda RC213V-RS. With the bike proving woefully underpowered, Laverty secured just nine points in 2015 and a best result of 12th in Barcelona. A switch to Ducati machinery this season has seen Laverty propel himself and the team up the order.
In just the second race of the season he took his best-ever MotoGP result of fourth, and was one of only three riders up until Austria to finish every single Grand Prix in the points. He has failed to finish just one race and currently lies 12th in the standings on 77 points, 19 outside of the top 10 and just one ahead of 13th placed Alvaro Bautista on the factory Aprilia.
The Ricardo Tormo Circuit hasn’t yielded much in the way of notable results for the 2013 WorldSBK runner-up. He finished ninth in the 2009 World Supersport race, taking a fifth place the following season. In Grand Prix racing, Laverty is yet to finish in the points at Valencia, with his best result being a 21st in the 2007 250cc race.
Despite this, he has reaffirmed his desire for, as has been the case throughout the year, a top 10 finish before he joins the Milwaukee Aprilia team in WorldSBK next year.
“At Valencia it would be nice to finish the season with a great result. It is the team’s home race so it’s an important one for the team and their sponsors so I am going to try and make the best race possible,” said Laverty.
“It’s difficult to say what the result could be but a top ten would be nice – that’s what we are always aiming for. Now we are twelfth in the championship so we will try to make the best finish as possible and top ten will be the goal.”
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