BMW’s Eugene Laverty had the worst WorldSBK Saturday by some margin with a difficult Superpole, brake failure on the sighting lap and then a ride-through penalty for trying to fix it.

Laverty couldn’t get the S1000RR to work with the qualifying tyre in Superpole and ran off track, then had to jump off the bike when his brakes failed on the way to the race-one grid and to add insult to injury, race direction then penalised the team for trying to fix the bike on the grid.

“My first lap in Superpole was my fastest one and I wanted to build from there but unfortunately I had problems with the front when I wanted to go with the qualifying tyre at the end and I wasn’t able to get a lap in as I went off the track,” said the Irishman.

“So starting from way down the field is always going to be tough but unfortunately in the sighting lap, we had a brake issue so I had to jump off the bike.

“I managed to get the bike back to the grid and the guys worked fantastically to repair it just about on time to get me starting the race. But unfortunately we ended being given a ride-through penalty because we were still working on the bike after the three-minute mark.

“Then Christophe Ponsson hat a massive crash in front of me and I had to go through the gravel to avoid him. So just everything that could go wrong did in a sense. I just have to forget today and work towards tomorrow.”