Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty narrowly missed out on his first MCE British Superbike front row start of the year, after he experienced a false neutral and clutch issue during the final qualifying outing at Snetterton this afternoon.
The Wales-based rider was up in the second sector before the mistake. But the Northern Irishman felt that he would have over achieved if he did bag pole, and that the pace he had was only good enough for the second row of the 300 track.
He is feeling a tad frustrated but his team are making a few changes to the front and rear suspension for warm up tomorrow, and he will try out the harder tyre option to see how that fairs in race conditions, as tyre life is key for the BMW rider.
“I am a little bit frustrated as I could have had a front row start, and I had the fastest second split and then I came down the back straight and then I had a problem with my clutch and had a false neutral - and then that lap would have put me front row,” said Laverty, speaking to bikesportnews.com from the track.
“But that lap would have been a fluke as we have the pace to be the second row. We are not far away, and we are missing a few tenths, and we will make some changes to morning warm up.
“We are getting better every session and we have to run with what we have got and hopefully improve for warm up and make that step.
“The front and rear suspension and electronics we will change for warm up, and that should make a difference. We have to take into consideration tyre wear and I don’t know how long the soft tyre is going to last race distance – so I may try the harder tyre in warm up and see how that is for lap times.”
