British 250GP star Eugene Laverty is bouncing after his debut World Supersport appearance at Donington Park yesterday where he managed a 12th place finish over a difficult weekend.

Irishman Laverty went into the race with no dry track time whatsoever after the whole of practice and qualifying was wet, and a test at Croft last Wednesday was also interrupted by rain.

The 22-year-old said: "I'm really happy, especially given that we didn't have any dry track time and I hadn't really ridden the bike on dry tyres.

"The team is happy and I think my laps times towards the end of the race, on a shot tyre, demontrate what I can do with a Supersport bike. I was two seconds a lap faster round here than I was on the Red Bull bike two years ago.

"Thankfully, the team has got some dry settings for the next race at Vallelunga so we can go there with good data and hopefully be up to speed from the get-go."

Laverty has to travel to Indianapolis on Wednesday for the next MotoGP round before he jumps back onto a four-stroke in Italy.

Read Eugene's exclusive US diary on www.bikesportnews.com from this Thursday.