Aspar Ducati’s Eugene Laverty will use this weekend’s MotoGP season opener in Qatar as another test session after he lost so much of his winter preparation time to injury after a couple of big crashes.
The lack of track time has seen the likeable Toomebridge rider end up much further off the pace than he thought possible, and he has to find a second to even be as fast as the other Ducati GP14.2s which will occupy the grid around him on Sunday for the season opener.
We have to use Qatar as a test session but it’s better late than never. I had to get used to riding again at the test and it wasn’t until the last hour that we started to be able to push. We’re only now starting to do some setup work as we are that bit behind,” Laverty told bikesportnews.com
“The bike is clearly capable as the other 14.2s are doing well. I am one second off them, which is a hefty old chunk but we need to get the bike suited to me to find that second.“The thing we found in the last test was something in the front fork. I never had confidence in the front Michelin before but it was clear now that I was slipping the tyre. We have changed something and now it is gripping. The next thing is getting the bike to turn better and that’s where the lap time will come from.”