For Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty the World Superbike Superpole didn't exactly go as planned. The Irish rider had to deal with a demanding setup since there wasn't enough time to completely convert the bike to wet settings. The rider struggled from the start, unable to get into the top nine and therefore forced to retire for the day after Superpole one.

His final lap time place him in twelfth place on the fourth row and is certainly not the result he had hoped for. However, Laverty is confident going in to the races on Sunday, after seeing the good times he put in on a dry track in the two sessions leading up to Superpole.

“It wasn't exactly an ideal Superpole. It was definitely the worst qualifier of the season and that doesn't make things easy for the races tomorrow. It's a shame because in the free practice sessions the bike was really going fast on the used tyres,” said Laverty.

“I'm certain that we'll be able to be competitive in the second part of the race, but the problem will be the first few laps since we're starting from the fourth row. In Superpole the bike settings were still oriented too much to dry conditions since the sudden rain didn't give us time to change it over completely.

“These things happen. Even one more lap would have been enough to gain enough confidence and maybe move up a few positions on the grid”.