Swan Yamaha's Michael Laverty was left bogged down at the start of a wet first British Superbike race at Oulton Park yesterday when his crew chief made a mistake with the launch control settings, putting a decimal point in the wrong place.

Laverty secured a front-row start in dry qualifying but dropped outside the top ten on lap one. He clawed his way back but then fell foul of a cold tyre after the safety car period and had to wait until it came back up to temperature before pushing on to sixth place.

"The race was disappointing for me, especially to finish sixth when we knew we had potential to be on the podium. I had a bad start as I had a problem with my launch control off the line and it meant I dropped outside the top ten and I had to work my way back up," said Laverty.

"When the safety car came out I lost temperature in my rear tyre and then it took a few laps to regain it which meant I lost ground on the others and had to settle for sixth. We have been fast all weekend but sixth means we scored points for the championship and we remained inside the top six in the standings which was the priority."