Aprilia's Eugene Laverty has said that cold tyres due to the lengthened start procedure in yesterday's second World Superbike race at Motorland Aragon were a big factor in his second-corner crash.

All the riders were held on the grid for a long time as Jules Cluzel was pushed into the pits with a greabox problem, Tom Sykes even turning his Kawasaki off to prevent it from overheating, and Laverty said that his tyres just cooled enough to not have the right amount of grip for the first couple of corners.

The crash added to his first-race woes when an electronic failure meant he had to retire from the lead and the weekend left him with a zero points score.

“Race one was truly disappointing. I was in the lead and had a good pace, but I had already noticed that something wasn't working properly on the bike. I had to stop in the pits which cost me six laps, but I knew I could make a comeback in race two," said Laverty.

"Instead, the double starting procedure created some problems for me because the tyres cooled off a bit. In fact I lost the rear first and then the front which caused me to crash. It definitely wasn't the perfect Sunday, but there is still plenty of championship left and I'm encouraged by the fact that I had all the prerequisites, hard luck permitting, to aim for a good result here too."