Aprilia Racing

Splashes of sunlight and intermittent rain showers marked the Superbike sessions again today at Silverstone. These were certainly not the best conditions for the Aprilia Racing Team, hard at work with Max Biaggi and Eugene Laverty, trying to find the best compromise for the races tomorrow.

The ranking championship leader, making it into the top sixteen before the rain could compromise the second qualifying session, began the first of two wet Superpole sessions by laying down a good series of laps which brought him just short of the top positions. When the track began to dry, Max's last lap was not enough to beat out the performance of his rivals, who relegated him to the third row. The eleventh spot on the starting grid is certainly not what was expected, but hopefully Max Biaggi will still be able to ride two good races.

“That's just the way Superpole went. I pushed to the limit, but there was no way to do any better. To be honest, we're not very far off the race place. We need to work on tweaking a few things in order to have a good pace. Given the way the weather shifts I think that it will be important to aim for consistent performance rather than pure performance, in the hopes that the warm-up conditions tomorrow morning will be useful in view of the races.”

Eugene Laverty will start three positions farther back, finishing fourteenth in Superpole after two good practice sessions. The lad from Toomebridge was unable to confirm the good performance he demonstrated yesterday and this morning and he is very much aware that, from a fourth row spot on the grid, when the red lights go off a perfect start will be indispensable Eugene's feeling on a wet track astride his RSV4 is good in any case, so all the potential for two good races on the attack are there.

“We had a problem with the front of the bike from the beginning of Superpole, it felt like the steering dumper was broken. Otherwise the bike was feeling ok in the wet so it’s unfortunate that this problem stopped me from pushing. We’ll start from the fourth row of the grid and so a good start will be vital.”