Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty could not quite believe that he made it on to the front row for the World Superbike race at Donington Park tomorrow. The Irish rider will start from third on the grid, next to team-mate Sylvain Guintoli, who was one second faster than Laverty in Superspole three, and the rider is now looking forward to the main race on Sunday.

“I am really happy because realistically I was aiming for second row, because there are seven riders that could win, so a front row start is like pole position for me,” said Laverty, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the circuit.

Laverty is happy with the consistency of his bike but will make some small changes in order to tackle the difficult Leicestershire track.

“This bike this year is the full package, and now it is a complete bike and it does not change much, even if we put a qualifying tyre in we don’t have to change electronics like we did last year, so we are now being consistent.

"For Donington we will change things on the bike, because it is so tight and twisty so we have to fine tune things on the bike around here”

But the Irishman is still aiming high, and wants nothing less than two podium finishes tomorrow, and he is confident that he can do well in both races.

“I want two podiums tomorrow and I will not rule out a win, as I did not think I could win at Assen but I managed to turn it around there.”