It was a positive weekend for Italian rider Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) at the Lausitzring in Brandenburg, Germany as he qualified on the front row on Saturday and managed two decent seventh place race finishes. Things did not go quite as well for Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia), however, as he finished tenth in Race 1 and then crashed out on Sunday.

The Milwaukee Aprilia team have made significant progress with the performance of their RSV4 RF machine in recent weeks, as highlighted by Savadori’s Superpole result and the Italian was pleased with how things went at Round 9.

Assessing Race 2 Savadori stated, “In the race I tried very hard to keep with the front group, and it wasn't easy to pass riders ahead of me. I got into a good rhythm and I knew the riders behind were very close, so I defended hard and focused on my pace. Towards the end of the race I tried to push again and take back some places, but we had a small problem with grip and I lost some acceleration.”

“We have had a good weekend for the team, we made good progress with the Aprilia RSV4 RF and we know how to make more progress. Portimao is a great track but it is quite difficult, so we will have to work hard, and I want to thank SMR and Aprilia Racing for their work.”

Meanwhile, giving his thoughts on Sunday’s race Laverty said, “I had a good start and I was trying to make my way through the field straight away. I got stuck behind (Alex) Lowes for a few laps before I was able to pass and make it stick. I tried to go forward but I had another gear-shift problem which cost me time. There was nothing particularly strange about the crash, I just lost the front which was a bit of a surprise.”

“In terms of progress with the bike this weekend it's been huge. Our Sunday morning warm up was incredible and the bike felt fantastic, it's just a shame we didn't have the same pace in the afternoon. Portimao is one of my favourite tracks on the calendar. I've been strong on all bikes there and won on an Aprilia before, so I'm looking forward to going back and hopefully we can put it on the podium.”