PBM Aprilia’s Michael Laverty was denied a points finish at the opening Qatar MotoGP round after the Irishman was penalised for a jump start with a ride-through penalty.

The Toombridge man had changed his setup back to one closer to he had during the pre-season tests in the desert and believed he was had the pace to finish in 14th. Team-mate Broc Parkes bagged a point in his debut race.

"Well that was a better race than I expected after a difficult weekend. My pace was good enough for 14th but the ride through penalty cost me dear. All in all it's been a positive start to the championship for us with Broc getting a point on the board and I'm really happy with how I rode though the 16th position finish didn't really do it justice. I'm looking forward to Texas now as I had anticipated Qatar to be our toughest event of the season, in many ways it was but we still had a strong race,” said Laverty.