McAMS Yamaha’s Michael Laverty has ‘turned a corner’ with his R1 after a positive MCE British Superbike weekend at Cadwell Park.

The season has been tough for the Wales-based rider but now his team have diminished the chatter problems that were blighting Laverty and he is feeling confident on the bike. He is able to ride the McAMS backed machine to the limit and now feels he is in a position to fight for podiums.

In race one Laverty finished in seventh and was in the mix challenging for a possible rostrum spot. In race two he felt he had less grip on his Pirelli tyres and in the end was overtaken by Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha’s Josh Brookes and fell back to eighth place.

But it was a solid points haul for the Northern Irishman and he is understanding the bike better after a successful test at the Lincolnshire track and then making progress at the Brands GP round. Laverty goes into Silverstone in good spirits where he hopes to improve on what he has learnt at Cadwell.

“We have been making progress and we tested here at Cadwell just before the Brands GP event and we managed to cure the chatter that was plaguing me during the early rounds. We came here and the progress from what we learnt at the test and Brands meant we stepped it forward during every session during the weekend,” said Laverty, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.

“Now I am in a position where I understand the bike better and I can push it and ride it close to the limit and I wasn’t able to do that earlier in the year and I think we have turned a corner with it. I am really happy with the front end and the chatter is gone and our corner speed is good and there is a bit of lacking in rear grip at the moment.

"A little bit of progress to be had yet but I feel hopefully at Silverstone we will be challenging for the podiums. This weekend was a big step forward and we are getting closer to where we need to be. The weekend has been positive.

“Race one I was only four seconds off the win and we were right there. On race two after four laps I felt that I had no grip for the rest of the race so it was a struggle, but it was great for James to get the first win for the team and that was great and it lifts the morale of the team.”