Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty will give it everything to take away two wins in the final World Superbike races at Jerez tomorrow and knows only maximum points will suffice if he wants to keep the championship title away from Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes.
Laverty and team-mate Sylvain Guintoli managed Superpole 1 expertly, putting in strong times with race tyres and saving the two soft tyres for the more heated qualifying phases. In Superpole 2 they got down to business, with all the riders out of the pits on qualifying tyres and Laverty made his intentions known by setting the best provisional time, followed by Red Devil’s Toni Elias and team mate Guintoli.
In the final and decisive Superpole session Laverty outdid himself, shaving another two tenths off his time and stopping the clock at 1'40.620, a new fast lap for the category which earned him first place on the starting grid tomorrow and his second Superpole of the season after Silverstone, and nothing but two wins will do for the Monaco based resident. But he is expecting a strong challenge from Huddersfield’s finest.
“Considering the gap behind Sykes, my only chance this weekend is to win both races. Starting ahead of the rest on the grid will definitely make that easier. Tomorrow I'll try to get off the line well and give it my all during the race. Sykes will also be starting from the front row and he'll definitely be trying to make his play to try and stop me, so that should make the races fairly interesting for the fans,” said Laverty.