PBM Aprilia’s Michael Laverty took a gamble with setup in yesterday’s qualifying session, moving the wheels of his GPMS-frame MotoGP bike back 14mm to get more weight towards the front but it didn’t pay off and he will revert back to settings he used in the recent test for today’s race.
The Irishman hasn’t had an easy weekend with one engine failing to run at all on Thursday, and he has been playing catchup ever since. He will start from 23rd on the grid but thinks he has the pace to fight with the likes of Hector Barbera on the Avintia Kawasaki.
“It was a little bit of a nightmare. We tried something new with the setup and I thought we were going in the right direction but we really struggled and we were half a second slower than we were in the test.
“Essentially, we took both wheels and moved them back, putting the engine weight further forward. I think I will go back to what I had at the test. It was like a 14mm shift which changes the weight distribution quite a bit.
“This circuit is a difficult one for us. It’s a lot of front end and we seem to get to the middle of the corners and the bike won’t finish the turn. This is always going to be a tough one for us but hopefully I can rectify it a little bit in the race and get in there with the Kawasaki.”
