Aspar Honda’s Eugene Laverty hit his race target at Le Mans by bagging his first MotoGP points even though the nature of the track caused him problems in the opening free practice sessions.

Laverty was forced into big setup changes to the front suspension in order to find some grip and had two crashes into the bargain but he rescued a brace of points from the weekend.

“The objective before the race today was to score points and we have achieved that. The key was the good work done by my mechanics once again this weekend. We have had a good setting for the past few races but this was a different kind of circuit and we found ourselves on the back foot on Friday,” said the Monegasque.

“We had to make big changes to the front end of the bike and our work wasn't made easier by two crashes, which were down to a mistake with tyre choice. I made a good start to the race but in turn two, with all the traffic, I touched with another rider and ran off track.

“I lost a lot of ground there and found myself almost at the back. I thought it was going to be a complete disaster but pushed hard and tried to make up as much ground as I could. I set some consistent laps and managed to get in the points for the first time this season. I am happy with that and hopefully we can keep it up for the upcoming races.”