Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) made his return to the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship this weekend at the Yamaha Finance Australian Round, with plenty to work with on his new Italian machine.

Despite undergoing some strong testing sessions over the winter, as the team came to Australia they encountered some issues with the RSV4 RF which made their weekend a tough one to work through. However the Irishman wasn’t downbeat as he continued to work through his problems around the fast and flowing circuit.

Starting race two from the second row of the grid under the new grid procedure, he was able to fight up in the early laps with the leaders but dropped back mid-way through the race. Despite this, Laverty has understood what he has to work on and is feeling positive ahead of the 2017 season.

Laverty explains: “It was such a tough race, in the first few laps I thought we had some pace and Lowes was slow in a few areas. I thought we could take him on and see what we could do but after the first few laps the bike wouldn’t go forward. The bike set-up is making big jumps and that’s what we’re looking for. Right now we’re far away from the front guys, but the important thing is that Aprilia know we’ve got some work to do.  I’m fighting hard and we’re hanging in there for a few laps, but we’ve got our work to do to try and catch up.”

Laverty will make his debut at Chang International Circuit in two weeks time, as he hopes to continue to make big steps with his Milwaukee squad.