In his returning year to the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) is beginning to feel a lot more comfortable onboard his RSV4 RF, and ended day one at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the top four.

Despite a crash towards the end of free practice two the Irish rider refused to feel downbeat, with a small mistake putting an early end to his Friday. Laverty is happy with his pace set so far and looks forward to continuing it into the all important Saturday. Lapping with a time of 1.24.098, the 31 year old was only 0.673s off fastest man Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), and explaining this has been his goal all season he is understandably thrilled with his pace so far.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Laverty explains: “I am very happy and it’s only been up from the first lap. It was the first time we have been able to lap at the same pace as Jonathan Rea this year. Also the first time this year I can say we are on it with the base set-up, but it’s still a question mark over race distance, if we can keep the tyres for the duration but we’ll find out tomorrow. As for the crash, I was pushing right at the end with a new tyre, I pushed too much and lost the front. I’m hungry, we’ve got the chance and I’m excited about that.”

Keep up with all on track action, and see if Laverty can keep up his pace into Superpole and Race One, with action beginning at 9:15LT (GMT -7) with WorldSBK Free Practice three.