Works Yamaha's Eugene Laverty didn't show his usual first corner bravado in the opening World Superbike encounter at Motorland Aragon yesterday whcih shuffled him back and made his job twice as hard in the high temperatures.

But he reckons the team have a made a setup breakthrough, presumably to help with his bike's wheelie problem, and that should stand the Irishman in good stead for the rest of the year.

"In race one I wasn’t brave enough on the first corner, which was usually my strongest point and I ended up getting bottle necked. I came through in the end and was very happy with my result," said Laverty.

"Something similar happened in race two but I felt the rear wheel locking and went wide causing me to lose several places. Had I gotten off to a better start, I know I could have been stronger. Considering the difficult weekend I had, I think we made a great breakthrough which will help us for every track. We’ll take the experience to the future and hopefully be stronger in Brno."