Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty believes he has a real chance of a his maiden 2017 WorldSBK podium tomorrow at Portimao so long as qualifying goes well at the Portugese track.

Laverty finished today in sixth overall and is looking for another step in pace after finding a good setup direction in recent rounds.
 
“The first practice was really difficult; the bike didn’t feel correct or as good as it did when we tested here in January. But, we knew the direction we had to go in and the afternoon practice was much better,” said Laverty.

We’re in that top 6 marker group, a step behind the front guys, and we need to keep pursuing the direction we found today. I really want to make that big next step as we’ve been building with this progress for a few rounds. We’ve been working hard to get the most out of the tyres since Pirelli changed them slightly after Laguna Seca, and that is a important area to focus on.

“The podium is certainly a target for race one tomorrow, but it will be tough and we need to make sure we have a good qualifying first.”