PBM Aprilia’s Michael Laverty is hopeful that a new exhaust system which has shown a 10bhp midrange power hike will be fully ready for this weekend’s Catalunya MotoGP round.

The Irishman has finished in 16th place five times in six races and is hopeful the new system, which has undergone dyno testing at the team’s workshop, will be in place for this weekend’s Spain contest.

“The system has given us 10bhp more midrange power on the dyno so I am hopeful we will be able to use it this weekend. It’s where we need a bit more grunt and hopefully it might allow us to challenge the likes of Abraham and Aoyama on the production Hondas,” said Laverty, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“We’ve at least been consistent with our 16th places but it is hard to go that one place better. I am pleased with what we have achieved so far but some points in the very near future must come and I don’t want to have to rely on other people crashing or having technical problems.

“Barcelona is a good circuit for us, we performed well in free practice and qualifying last year, but the race was a let down. I’ll give it my best shot and hope that some points are forthcoming…”