Undergoing a tough start to the season, Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) is confident he has made steps aboard his Italian machine, taking a top eight finish around the TT Assen Circuit despite suffering with front tyre issues.

Laverty, who is making his return to the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship for 2017, has been looking for improvements on his RSV4 RF machine as he feels he has been unable to meet his capabilities on board the machine.

However some positive steps have been made for the Northern Irishman, who secured a second row start and a strong fight in the race, locked in a battle close to the top five.

Happier with his weekend so far, Laverty explains: “It’s been a positive weekend so far compared to other rounds. Friday was good, qualifying on the second row was good and in the race we had our problems, but it looked like we had a shot for the top five and that’s where we need to be right now. But the front tyre went off, and it didn’t seem like the other guys were having that problem so we need to understand why we’re having a problem. We also had a mechanical problem, where I wasn’t able to ride in a straight line so it wasn’t ideal and I just had to nurse it back. But overall the feeling has been better, were definitely making positive steps, but we need to work out what’s wrong with that front tyre as that could be the key to our race.”

Keep up and see if Laverty can improve on his front tyre set-up in Sunday’s race, with bikes on track from 09.00 LT (+2 GMT) all on the WorldSBK VideoPass, which can be found here.