Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty feels that changes to the chassis of his bike have paid off as he found that added pace to soar from twelfth to sixth during the second World Superbike free practice session at Sepang this afternoon.

Using the initial half-an-hour to get up to speed, the real business of set-up specifics was left for the remaining 45 minute stint. A small crash at turn four in the last 12 minutes of the session however, left the Irishman little chance to improve.

As Friday afternoon saw air temperatures soar to 31°C - with 70% humidity making it feel much higher - little changed in the times during the opening twenty minutes of free practice two. The closing minutes saw the times start to tumble with all but two of the front runners improving.

Laverty put his Suzuki GSX-R1000 in fifth position, with a time of 2'05.356 with just five minutes to go, but was relegated to sixth in the dying minutes by Ducati’s Davide Giugliano.

“This morning we were a long way off but this afternoon we jumped up to within a quarter of a second of the top guys so our bike is working the best it has done in these hot and slippery conditions. We definitely made a step chassis wise,” said Laverty.

“For qualifying I need to be in the top six, like I am now, I need to be on those first two rows. We need to improve the starts because that’s been a real thorn in my side this year, I sometimes go backwards on the first lap and have to work hard to get back, which is too late, so that’s key for tomorrow.”

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