Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty is adamant he needs more time on his S1000RR before the opening MCE British Superbike round. The Northern Irishman felt the weather conditions blighted the amount of time he had with his machine during the test today, and his crew lacked track time to work on certain issues.

Gearing, suspension and electronics proved problematic for Laverty today, and he only went out in the final session for the last nine minutes. But during his limited time out on the Leicestershire circuit at Donington Park, he was able to put down a few laps to take back some valuable data to his crew, so that improvements can be made to the bike.

“We had a lot going against us today. We lost the morning session because of the weather, but we needed some dry track time to work on the things we developed while in Spain,” said Laverty, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.

“Unfortunately we had some technical issues that meant the last nine minutes of track time was the only useful data that I got and by the time I got out there I realised the gearing was off, the electronics were out, the suspension was out, and I didn’t have time to fix it. I decided to do laps and try and get some data for next week.

“We had technical issues that meant we lost the one session we had, and it was a bit frustrating for me. We will learn something from the data today, but we are not as bad as the timesheets looked, but it is a long way till race-day.

“It still doesn’t feel like my bike and there are areas that I still need to improve. I wanted to come out all guns firing at round one but we are behind the ball and there is no point lying to ourselves. But we are not too far away - but we are not as good as I like to be for round one. Hopefully we will keep improving, and we need to make some chances electronics wise.”

With the poor weather and the technical problems Laverty is feeling a tad frustrated but will contact team boss Philip Neill and ask if it is possible to have an extra day out on the bike before the first BSB round at Donington in a few days' time. The Wales-based rider thought he would be stronger than he was today, and wanted to make an impact at the first round – but that might not be the case with the issues he experienced today. 

“It would be nice to have a test before the first round. The team truck is going back to Ireland as losing today hurt us, and if I can get out somewhere like Kirkistown then that would be great. I will call Philip and see whether it is a possibility, as I feel I would benefit from the extra track time that we lost today. I expected to come out of here a bit stronger than we were to be honest.”