PBM’s Michael Laverty had to fight his way back from dead last on the first lap after a false neutral saw him run off the track and he then had to fight his way back through the field to take 16th place and begin to knock on the door of world championship points.

It is only the Irishman’s second MotoGP race on the PBM bike, which has a bespoke GPMS chassis different to the established Aprilia frame run by team-mate Yonny Hernandez. Laverty made solid progress through the weekend, dropping his laptimes from 2'18.3 in free practice one to 2'08.259 in qualifying and a 2'08 flat on lap 11 of the race, beating the FTR Kawasakis he had targeted in the process.

“I've got to be happy with this weekend but I'm left wanting more as a mistake on the opening lap when I selected a false neutral put me off track and dead last. I fought back through to 16th and fourth CRT so it's a big improvement on Qatar,” said Laverty.

“My goal for this weekend was to hassle the FTR Kawasakis and in the race I caught, passed and pulled a gap on them all so I would say we exceeded our target for round two. We have taken a big step forward with the PBM bike, time was always against us coming into the season but now we are making inroads with our base settings for the chassis and electronics, and I believe we can take another step forward in Jerez as we now have a clear direction on where we need to improve.”