Eugene through to Superpole 2 at Lausitzring
Milwaukee Aprilia completed their best Free Practice of 2017 on Friday at Lausitz, after riders Lorenzo Savadori and Eugene Laverty ended the day P4 and P6 respectively.
Returning for Round 9 of the WorldSBK championship from the summer break, the team were optimistic for the weekend after an encouraging test at Lausitz in July.
A dry FP1 session gave the riders chance to get back up to speed with the ever-improving Aprilia RSV4 RF, and they were immediately on the pace with laps in the 1’37 mark.
FP2 was delayed by a red flag after a competitor’s crash, and then further delayed by an hour and a half when a heavy downpour hit the track. Restarting with 35 minutes left, the team used the time to refine their setup for qualifying and the race and cement their places in the top 6.
With another successive Superpole 2 start for both bikes, Milwaukee Aprilia will be looking to consolidate their pace so far with strong grid positions ahead of Race 1.
The action continues for Milwaukee Aprilia on Saturday with Superpole 2 at 10:55 (09:55 GMT).
Eugene Laverty #50
“Today in general I was surprised that there was such a big difference in grip compared to the test, about three-quarters of a second. In the afternoon we improved but we were still off the pace we were able to do in July. The bike still feels good round here, there’s just some things to improve with the front that we can fix tomorrow. The direction we’re going in is the same in Laguna, which has been working for us. That weekend was unlucky but I’m glad we’ve been able to continue that plan and develop it. The top 3, 4 guys are still tough to mix with, but we’re catching them up bit by bit. It’s difficult to say how much weather will factor this weekend. We did some wet laps in testing here which were useful, but we all know that it gets really slippery here when it rains so we’ll have to be careful. I’d prefer a dry race of course; we want to show our potential and anything could happen.”