Having demonstrated impressive speed in Superpole on Saturday, Lorenzo started Race Two from fourth on the grid under the reverse grid rules. His start was rapid and he kept pace with the leaders, passed only by Davies on Lap Two. Lorenzo set about chasing down Fores, reeling him in and forcing a strong overtake on Lap Eight to retake fourth. He produced an excellent defence against Sykes, Camier and Lowes but a loss of grip in the late stages of the race hurt his ability to attack, and Lorenzo brought home another important haul of nine points in P7.

Eugene faced a challenge starting from P10 on the grid, but was on the attack immediately. He diced with Lowes for P8, and made a pass that stuck on lap six. He looked set for a good finish and was closing on the group ahead, before a mistake at Turn Six on lap eight resulted in a small crash that was enough to put him out of the race.

Over the weekend the team have seen clear progress made with their Aprilia RSV4 RF, and they look set to carry this progress on for the last four rounds of WorldSBK 2017.

The action continues for Milwaukee Aprilia in Portugal at Round 10 of the 2017 WorldSBK series, at the Portimao circuit 15-17 September.

Lorenzo Savadori #32 - Grid: P4 - Race: P7, 9 points

"In general I am happy with how the weekend has been. In the race today I tried very hard to keep with the front group, and it wasn't easy to pass riders ahead of me.

I got into a good rhythm and I knew the riders behind were very close, so I defended hard and focused on my pace. Towards the end of the race I tried to push again and take back some places, but we had a small problem with grip and I lost some acceleration.

We have had a good weekend for the team I think, we made good progress with the Aprilia RSV4 RF and we know how to make more progress. Portimao is a great track but it is quite difficult, so we will have to work hard, and I want to thank SMR and Aprilia Racing for their work."

Eugene Laverty #50 - Grid: P10 - Race: Retired

“I had a good start and I was trying to make my way through the field straight away. I got stuck behind Lowes for a few laps before I was able to pass and make it stick. I tried to go forward but I had another gear shift problem which cost me time.

There was nothing particularly strange about the crash, I just lost the front which was a bit of a surprise. We seem to lose some performance when the temperature rises, which is something we'll be looking at for next time.

In terms of progress with the bike this weekend it's been huge. Our morning warm up was incredible and the bike felt fantastic, it's just a shame we didn't have the same pace in the afternoon. Portimao is one of my favourite tracks on the calendar. I've been strong on all bikes there and won on an Aprilia before, so I'm looking forward to going back and hopefully we can put it on the podium."

Mick Shanley - Team Manager

"Overall it has been a far more positive weekend for us, even though the results haven't been what we wanted. We're showing our potential that we can take a good step toward the front, and Lorenzo showed that today with probably his best performance over a race, so we have positives to take from that.

Both guys are still having to ride pretty close to the limit, and sometimes it's not worked out for them. We had good potential with Eugene which we weren't able to capitalise on, but we just to need work hard now to make sure that both guys can fight for those top six positions.

The bike in general is more consistent. We've made global improvements with braking, steering, race pace and other areas, and we need to make that next step in performance to score the big points."