Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty had his best qualifying session since the opening round, during the World Superbike race weekend at Laguna Seca, but unfortunately he was not able to replicate his good form with a podium finish.

Sunday started off badly for the Monaco-based resident as his team were fixing his bike on the starting grid in race one, but even though he started the race he soon he retired with a technical problem and was never able to recover.

In the second race Laverty was going well, until the red flags came out, and the Irishman didn’t fair so well in the seven-lap dash re-starts. But he did manage to hang on to fourth, just missing out on a third place finish, which went to Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea. The rider feels fourth is not good enough after all his team’s hard work this weekend.

“We have put in a lot of good work all weekend but race one was over before it started, we had a technical problem and managed a few laps hanging in there but the bike was on its way out, so on lap eight it was done,” said Laverty.

“In race two I managed to hang in with the front guys even when our bike isn’t as strong with a full fuel tank and new tyres. Then the GSX-R started to feel really good and I knew I could come towards them but the red flag came out.

“The restarted seven lap sprints don’t really suit us as we are always better at the end of the races. We as a team had the potential for podiums today, the guys worked so hard this weekend so we all deserved it before the summer break - fourth was not really the reward we were looking for.”