Laverty getting comfortable on open Honda

A late lap saw Eugene Laverty get underneath the 2m02s barrier in Sepang and finish the day within three tenths of his teammate, Nicky Hayden. Laverty came away pleased with his progress on the Open Honda as he is continuing to learn the bike but he did admit that he now finally feels comfortable on it after struggling in Sepang 1 to find the right balance.

While Laverty is now braking at the limit he admits that he still needs to find some speed in corner exits but that the progress made so far in the test has been very encouraging.

“I had been struggling with the balance of the bike in Sepang 1 but it felt good here today even with the difficult track conditions,” said Laverty. “I’m now much more comfortable moving around the bike and the position is now spot on so now it’s just a matter of working on the setup.”

Laverty’s time today came on his final run of the day but having made a mistake on the previous lap, and ran off track, he knew that a fast time was possible and that it was just a matter of committing to the lap. While pleased with his time Laverty commented that perhaps more encouraging than his ultimate pace was the he was able to ease off and ride comfortably today and lap within a few tenths of his best time.

“I think that one of the biggest positives from today was that when I was looking to just ride comfortably and within myself I was able to do 2m02’s. It was nice to get the fast time in at the end because after I’d made the mistake and ran off track I had done a low 2m02 lap so I knew that there I could get underneath 2’02.”