Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty feels he is in a position to challenge for a top result in this weekend’s US World Superbike round, after ending Friday practice fourth overall.
The Northern Irishman was on the pace right from the off on Friday, topping the timesheets in the early stages of first practice with a 1m24.444s, before improving to a 1m24.098s in the closing stages.
Though unable to improve on his morning best in second practice, Laverty was still fourth on the combined times and lapping similarly to championship leader Jonathan Rea – the first time this year Laverty has felt on a par with the Kawasaki rider.
He attributes this to finding a base set-up that allowed him to hit the ground running for the first time all season, though he admits he is unsure whether the bike will look after the tyres during the race – an common issue this season for the Northern Irishman.
“I am very happy and it’s only been up from the first lap,” he said.
“It was the first time we have been able to lap at the same pace as Jonathan Rea this year.
“Also, (it’s) the first time this year I can say we are on it with the base set-up, but it’s still a question mark over race distance, if we can keep the tyres for the duration but we’ll find out tomorrow.”
Laverty’s Friday was not completely trouble-free. While pushing to better his laptime from first practice, the Aprilia rider crashed at Turn 3.
Twitter: That was a scary one!
But hopefully rider was OK!
#USWorldSBK https://t.co/qqLejTpZXT (@WorldSBK)
He confessed he simply overstepped the mark while on fresh rubber, and it did nothing to quash his confidence ahead of Superpole and the first race on Saturday.
“As for the crash, I was pushing right at the end with a new tyre,” he explained.
“I pushed too much and lost the front. I’m hungry, we’ve got the chance and I’m excited about that.”
Team-mate Lorenzo Savadori did not fare as well at Laguna Seca on Friday, the Italian failing to lift himself into the top 15 in either of the two practice sessions.
Savadori ended the day 16th overall on a 1m25.421s, 1.4 seconds down on Laverty, and will face the first part of Superpole on Saturday morning.
