Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty is not a happy rider this evening, after he came away from the World Superbike round at Portimao with an eighth and ninth place finishes. The Irishman found that he lacked ‘feeling’ on the bike, especially in the rain, leaving him with little confidence this afternoon.
Laverty leaves Portugal eighth in the oveall championship standings, which is a disappointing conclusion to his impressive weekend showing. The Monaco-based resident looked to be bringing home a top six finish in race one, on his Suzuki GSX-R in the midday contest, before the tangle with the backmarkers on the final stretch of the last lap cost him two positions.
As the rain came down for the final race of the day, Laverty struggled to retain his earlier position. Dropping to 13th after a difficult start, he improved to set his fastest lap of the race on the penultimate rotation, consolidating ninth position at the line in race two.
“We were top four in every session apart from the three that mattered, Superpole and the two races. I’m very disappointed with race one, it was drizzling with rain and I was too scared to take risks and ended up in a low position,” said Laverty.
“I lost two places on the last lap due to backmarkers but whether it was sixth or eighth, for me it wasn’t a good race. In the second race I didn’t have any feeling at all in the beginning, it came better in the end but it was too little, too late, so it was a poor day. We really had pace for the podium here so to walk away with an eighth and a ninth is not what we hoped for.”
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