Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty fought back from a poor start in the opening World Superbike race at Aragon to finish fifth and in the final race of the day overcame a clash with Toni Elias to snatch sixth – in what was a difficult weekend after having problems with a full tank of fuel and engine braking.

Laverty initially suffered a poor start to the morning race, dropping to 12th at the end of the first lap. Running wide in the early stages to relegate himself further, the Irishman dug deep on his Yoshimura-powered GSX-R to regain his pace, closing the gap to the front group to hold eighth by lap eleven.

The latter third of the race saw Laverty reignite the charge further, swapping positions with both Aprilia’s to take fifth on the final revolution. Race two initially saw more potential, before a clash with another rider resulted in a drop to eleventh. Regrouping again, the racer took just four laps to improve on his qualifying position, holding seventh for the majority of the race before setting his fastest time of the race on lap fifteen to cross the line in a well-deserved sixth.

“We salvaged two decent results today. Worst-case scenario we need to be top six in any race this year, it was a difficult weekend and we achieved that! In the first race we had the potential to fight for third, but unfortunately I ran off the track twice because we are having problems with a full tank of fuel and the engine braking control at the beginning,” said Laverty.

“I had the same problem in the second race but I just had to be more careful. At the end of race one, we were really strong; race two I had a good pace but on lap one Toni Elias hit me and I moved from eighth back to twelfth position. That hurt my race a lot so I had to fight back to finish sixth, but I can at least have a smile at that.”

Click here for times