MotoGP: Laverty disappointed with poor start

Eugene Laverty has been left disappointed with himself after making a poor start to Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix – and costing himself the chance to finish higher than twelfth despite strong pace in the early stages of the race.

The Aspar Ducati rider ended the race as one of the fastest men on track, running at a similar pace to the race leaders – but with the damage done in the early stages of the race, any chance he had of making it a closer fight had already gone.

“I’m disappointed in myself because at the start I didn’t ride so good. I didn’t have a good feeling with the bike when there was a lot of water, I didn’t have confidence. Mainly I was losing in the braking. When the track wasn’t so wet my lap times were fantastic, my pace was fast like the guys at the front, so it is disappointing that I lost so much in the first six laps or so because the damage was done already.

“I came through strong to move up to twelfth and I was catching the group in front but unfortunately there wasn’t enough laps remaining to catch them and fight for maybe seventh or eight. It’s a missed opportunity but in the end the bike was good.”  

It was a less successful race for teammate Yonny Hernandez, with a gamble to start on the softer-option Michelin tyres failed to pay out as the track dried out.

“I had to pull out of the race here in Malaysia because the front tyre was on the limit. I went with the soft front and hard rear because it was raining so hard but I didn’t expect the track to dry out as much as it did. I didn’t have the same feeling as the last few days here, we don’t know why yet. Hopefully everything goes better in Valencia so that we can have a good weekend right the way through to the end, because it has been a tough season.”