Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty has described his MCE British Superbike weekend at Cadwell Park as ‘tough’ and did not expect the S1000RR to struggle as much as it did around the Lincolnshire circuit.

The biggest issue for the Wales-based rider was with a lack of grip on the rear Pirelli tyre, on both entry and drive and this meant he was not able to maintain a pace to challenge for a podium in the double-header on Monday.

Laverty opted for the SC0 rear and SC1 front tyre compounds in both events, and his team made a slight change in the final race to the BMW, but whatever they tweaked did not work as well as the set up in race one.

“I kind of thought this weekend would be damage limitation, but I didn’t expect it to be as tough as it was. We were getting there a little bit too late,” said Laverty, speaking to bikesportnews.com from the track.

“Race one was OK, again we struggled with grip at the start and we couldn’t match the pace that the other boys could do. But late in the race we were quite strong. The pace was OK and we thought a few tweaks in race two and we would be stronger, but we actually went the wrong way.”

Laverty remains inside the top six, in fourth and is still in Showdown contention, after coming away from the weekend’s races with ten points after finishing race one in tenth and race two in twelfth.

Laverty continued to explain: “We were quite good in the earlier laps but then really dropped off. The only positive from the weekend is that we are still in the Showdown and we are still in fourth place, and we need to regroup and get back to the pace we had earlier in the year.”

“This has been my toughest weekend all season and not really able to put a finger on why, there is no real reason and we should not be struggling as bad as that.

“The biggest thing was grip from the rear, both entry and drive so whenever I tried to be aggressive and put it on its side fast through the change of direction, the rear was coming around on me and I was losing the rear, and when I was trying to accelerate with the other guys I did not have the grip to do that and it was all pretty much rear side, so it was a tough ride around here.

“I have won here in the past and had a lot of podiums and it is a circuit I enjoy, but this weekend I didn’t enjoy it one bit. I couldn’t flow with my bike and I couldn’t ride it how I have been riding it all year, and I cant tell you exactly why. It has been a tough weekend.”