Factory Aprilia's Eugene Laverty has shrugged off a crash and subsequent trip to the medical centre during the first World Superbike qualifying session at Phillip Island earlier today and has set his sights firmly on getting into Superpole tomorrow.

The Toomebridge man broke his hand in a testing crash over a week ago and then, after some tentative laps in free practice, slid off at Lukey Heights in the second session,

and suffering a bruised foot and minor concussion.

“In the first session I just wanted to see how my hand would perform. In the second the feeling was good from the first laps. I was on a used tyre and I lost the back end and took a slide, hitting my head and my foot," said Laverty.

"I'm fine now and there don't seem to be any problems for tomorrow, but I'm still disappointed about the important time we lost because of the crash. Tomorrow the goal is to stay in the top sixteen in order to get into Superpole and try to bring home good results in the two races."