Aprilia's Eugene Laverty was hit hard by chatter on the soft Pirelli qualifying tyres in today's World Superbike Superpole at Donington Park but says he has a great setup on race rubber for tomorrow's double-header.

The Irishman hasn't been able to perform so far this year in the final one-lap dashes but is able to make headway come raceday, scoring podiums in the last two meetings. The Toomebridge man made progress with race strategy in the final free practice session this morning which set him up well for a podium challenge.

“We struggled once again in Superpole. We had some difficulties in all the sessions, but in the last free practice we made significant progress with some changes to the bike's set-up. Unfortunately the soft qualifier caused some annoying chattering that created quite a few problems for me. We'll start from the third row, but I'm encouraged by the fact that I've got a good race pace even after the tyre starts to wear," he said.