Works Yamaha rider Eugene Laverty had to settle for a brace of fifth places in yesterday's Brno World Superbike double header after tweaks to his setup saw his straight-line speed as a serious disadvantage at the Czech circuit.

Laverty's crew had made a change to stop the bike wheelying by altering the way it exited corners but that clearly affected the rest of the bike's normal top-end speed and Laverty was left to wonder what could have been, Tweeting last night: "Rode my nuts off to get slaughtered in a straight line."

He added: "I had hoped to do much better. I had to settle for two fifth places when I could have done more. I was struggling with power, and getting up straight line speed. I was on the same pace as the top riders but losing time on straights even though I was riding to the limit. Considering the circumstances, the result wasn’t too bad. We need to pull out the data and investigate to understand where we can improve and be stronger for Silverstone."