Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty made his his return to the RSV4 at today’s Jerez World Superbike test but had to splash around on wets for 20 laps for his shakedown.

The former MotoGP rider said he was able to get comfortable on the bike straightaway and immediately got a good feeling from the Pirelli wets in two exits.

“I’ve only done 20 laps or so and it’s not often you do that mfew laps on a new bike and feel at home. It may have been wet today but it was productive, we only needed those couple of exits and we’re already very fast in the wet but I’m ready for some dry riding now,” said Laverty, speaking at Jerez.

“I was happy to go out straightaway as I didn’t have a good feeling with the wets in 2014, so I wanted to get out there. I felt comfortable with them, so I was able to push. The first exit was to get some feedback and trust, then the second was pushing. Never had any moments and being back with the Apprilia electronics was impressive.

“I thought the bike might feel big to get back on but it feels like a proper race bike, small and snug. I changed a couple of things compared to how I rode it before but that’s just how my style has evolved.”