Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty put Pirelli’s hardest-option front tyre to work Sunday’s second WorldSBK race, leading the race for a lap and staying in the top five for 15 but ended in eighth after the hoop chewed up and he couldn’t push.
Laverty says that he can fight with the fastest guys on a fresh tyre at the start but then it wears rapidly and he just can’t compete. Aprilia’s MotoGP parts haven’t helped as weren’t developed with the Pirelli tyres and Laverty went back to a 2012 swingarm on Saturday.
“The new rules gave us a chance to show what we can do in the early laps of race two. I went for it and it felt much more comfortable at the start compared to race one. I started to drop back but the problem really came mid-distance, the front tyre was causing me some problems again and I started to go backwards,” said Laverty, speaking at the track.
“This weekend confirmed where we have to work. We were strong when the tyre is fresh but then the bike becomes really difficult to ride. I will see what Aprilia come up with between now and Imola. It’s good for them to see we have performance for those few laps. They know we are good for five laps, we need to be good for the next 15.”
It is believed that Imola will see a revised tank to try and address the weight balance problems, moving some of the load off the front.
