Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty had a rather mixed World Superbike weekend, after crashing in race one but coming away from race two with a second place podium finish. The Monaco resident knows he can not make any more ‘slip ups’ especially if he wants to be in with a shot of the championship title.

Starting from the twelfth spot on the grid, the Northern Irish rider also had two good starts. However, his comeback in race one was interrupted in the fourth lap when a crash forced him to head back to the garage. After the damage to his bike was repaired Laverty went back out, ending the race in fifteenth place and earning one point.

In race two Laverty unleashed his potential from the start, reaching the podium range within a few laps where he engaged in battle first with Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes and then with GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri, overtaking them both and setting his sights on frontrunner Chaz Davies. All signs pointed to an assault in the final laps, just when the red flag that ratified a second place finish for Laverty came out. Now the rider is on a mission to get as many points as he can in the remaining rounds.

“It was a shame about the red flag in Race two when I was about to attack Chaz Davies for first place. I'm not saying I would have won it, but I would have had a go. The crash in Race one created a bit of a mess,” said Laverty.

“I want to battle for the Championship and mistakes like that one can be costly. When you start so far back on the grid there's a lot more pressure and with that comes the risk of making some mistakes.

“We definitely will not be able to make any more slip ups for the rest of the season. All told we haven't lost too much ground behind the Championship leaders but we've got a hard battle ahead.”