Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty had a demanding day in the World Superbike practice sessions at Monza this afternoon. The rider, alongside team-mate Sylvain Guintoli had to contend with changing track conditions, due to the wet then dry weather, which forced them to look for the best set ups in the various conditions. But the Northern Irishman had a few concerns with trying to find the best braking set up.

In the first free practice session, Laverty only completed four laps, just enough to get a taste of the track conditions and assess the wet set up. In the qualifying practice session, Laverty could only manage the seventh fastest lap time out on track.

“I got off to a bit of a problematic start this morning. We had a few problems with the braking system and that's an important factor on this track as well as one of my strongest points. Usually it's quite easy to go fast right from the start at Monza, but it gets more difficult to shave a few tenths of a second off,” said Laverty.

“I have a feeling that it will be the opposite for us. In any case I'm still quite confident since we have a good handle on the problem and we are working to resolve it for tomorrow”.