WorldSBK Indonesia: Qualifying ‘disaster’ led to points battle for Laverty

Eugene Laverty’s penultimate WorldSBK weekend proved challenging in Indonesia after a ‘disastrous’ qualifying left the Bonovo BMW rider on the back foot.

A crash on Friday derailed the Northern Irishman’s initial progress in Lombok’s hot and humid conditions with grip difficult to find. Saturday morning’s qualifying action proved equally as tricky with 20th the best he could muster, despite a six-second increase in pace.

Race one saw Laverty dig deep through the 21 lap race to secure two championship points but Sunday brought further difficulties. The Superpole sprint saw the 36-year-old close to the edge of the points positions but out of time to advance higher than 17th while technical issues in the feature race saw his progress halted one place higher.

“Not to get a point is difficult to accept, because I pushed to get at least one point - that would have been deserved after all the work,” Laverty admitted after a disappointing Sunday.

“Superpole race was okay, I made progress but in the second race I had problems with the front tyre in the higher temperatures and also with the brakes. To finish 16th after so much effort was tough.

“After qualifying was a disaster, I pushed and almost crashed a couple of times,” he continued on his more favourable Saturday showing. We discovered a problem with the fork which was a result of Friday’s crash. We were able to fix that, and I was stronger in the race. I was able to get a few points. With my pace I am not as fast as I should be, but at least I was consistent and was able to secure two points for the team.

“We will check off this weekend and move on to Australia, to one of my favourite tracks, Phillip Island.”