Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty suffered engine brake and traction control issues that hampered his race pace during the World Superbike qualifying practice sessions at Magny-Cours. The Irishman, along with his team will be working hard throughout the night to try and close the gap on the front riders, including his team-mate Sylvain Guintoli.

The French rider set the fastest time today, but Laverty was never too far behind. Once the electronics on his RSV4 had been fine tuned the Monaco based resident took a big step forward, stopping the clock with the fifth best time at less than a tenth of a second from a provisional podium finish for the day.

The first session was a virtual wash-out after heavy rain showers over night left the track damp and slippery, which meant Laverty lost out of valuable lap time, but the racer is hoping to be in the ‘best possible shape’ tomorrow.

“We lost half of the first session because of the weather and then we had some problems with the engine brake and traction control settings. Toward the end of the qualifiers we managed to close the gap on the front runners, but we still have a lot of work to do if we want to be consistently fast. We'll analyse the data this evening so we can come out for tomorrow's sessions in the best possible shape,” said Laverty.