The up and down track of the Algarve did not smile on the Go Eleven Team and its rider Eugene Laverty this past weekend.
Arriving in Portugal with the best expectations after the more than positive summer tests, the changed conditions of the asphalt created problems the Ducati Panigale V4-R prepared by the Piedmontese Team.
Sunday morning was opened by an encouraging Warm Up compared to the Saturday Race. Eugene managed to get close to the top riders, just 3 tenths from the Top 4.
As the temperatures rose, the usual problems encountered all weekend came back. No grip at the rear and great effort to make the bike turn in the middle of the corners, especially in the second and third sector.
However, Eugene tried to stick to the front group, but also because of a bad start and a couple of seconds lost in overtaking, he didn’t go beyond fifteenth position.
The race pace was worse than the expectations created by the warm up and it was not possible to enter the first nine, to take advantage of the grid changes.
In readiness for race 2 the Go Eleven technicians tried to improve the balance of the bike, to increase the ground contact of the rear tyre.
Unfortunately the changes did not improve the situation, and for Eugene it was not easy to manage tyre drop. Towards the middle of the race he seemed to be able to close on the official BMW of Reiterberger, but an error pushed him away, managing to get a bit closer again towards the end but without gaining positions.
Eugene Laverty: “Another difficult day! The Superpole Race was tough, I ended in 15th position, and in the main Race, Race 2, we had still no grip. I couldn’t stop the bike and couldn’t take the gas to exit the corner. So it was really difficult!
A weekend to forget and now we look forward to Many-Cours. I’m disappointed because I love this track and I can always be strong here, but this weekend we had no rear grip, it was impossible to fight for the top.”