PARKALGAR HONDA’S Eugene Laverty is provisionally fifth and Miguel Praia 13th on the grid for Sunday’s 11th round of the World Supersport Championship at the Nurburgring in Germany after a frustrating day held them back from showing their true potential.

There is another practice and qualifying session tomorrow before the race takes place at 1330 local time on Sunday, September 5th. To follow the team visit the website at Parkalgar Honda.

Eugene: “We were fastest in the morning session and had a really good direction for the afternoon. The lap times were coming easy and we were very positive but then the qualifying session turned into one of ‘those sessions’ where nothing seems to come together. I set my fastest lap early on a used tyre then had an electrical problem that was fixed. I then had a slow speed crash, changed bike and the front tyre gave me no feel. I changed that but by then the rear tyre was shot and after that I struggled to get into my rhythm on either bike. It’s a case of lessons learnt and looking forward to tomorrow, we know we can run at the front and just want to put this session behind us.”

PARKALGAR HONDA’S Eugene Laverty won a nail-biting 10th round of the World Supersport Championship at Silverstone in the UK while his team mate Miguel Praia scored a career best sixth in the best ever race day result for the Portuguese owned, UK operated team.

The battle for the win was between Eugene and Kenan Sofuoglu on another Honda and neither gave an inch until the last lap when Eugene made a decisive pass and held on to take his sixth victory out of 10 starts to win in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.

Miguel starting from 12th finished a career best sixth, less than four seconds from the podium in what is his best race performance ever at World Championship level.

Eugene: “It is nice to win our home race and it was a tough one. My plan had to change several times through the race. First I made a break but then Kenan put in some quick laps and then I decided to drop back and see where he was weak. I spotted his weak areas but he could have been sandbagging so I passed him again on the last lap with plenty of corners to spare and found that he really was weaker and not pretending. It is especially nice to beat Kenan in this sort of race because he is not used to losing this sort of fight and that makes it an important psychological win. My Parkalgar Honda was brilliant, we ran faster lap times than I expected and it was the best bike on the day.”

We’re midway through our summer break and while most Italians riders will be dawning their Speedos on the beach by day I’m much happier being at home! Things have been so hectic for me this year, on top of competing in the World Supersport Championship I’ve made three visits to Austria to attend the Red Bull Diagnostics and Training Center and I’ve been along to a handful of GPs. For me being at home feels like a holiday and this week I’ve been in my my home country for all seven days.