Milwaukee Aprilia made a solid start to Round 2 at the Chang International Circuit, reaching Superpole 2 for the second consecutive race

Coming off the back of a double points finish in Race 2 at Phillip Island two weeks ago, the team arrived in Thailand looking to make further ground with their new generation Aprilia RSV4 RF.

The team worked through a busy programme to get the bikes working in the sweltering heat, with both Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori showing marked improvements in pace between the FP1 and FP2 sessions on Friday.

Eugene's time of 1'34.518 earnt him 10th place overall, which means he progresses straight to the Superpole 2 pole position shootout for the first time in 2017.

Lorenzo's lap of 1'34.554 was just shy of the cutoff for Superpole 2, and he must take part in the Superpole 1 session on Saturday. He will be targeting the top two spots in order to progress for the pole position shootout.

The action continues at Chang on Saturday with Free Practice 3 at 10:45 (03:45 GMT) ahead of the Superpole sessions at 13:30 (06:30 GMT).


Eugene Laverty #50 - FP1 - 1'35.037       FP2 - 1'34.518

Today was a good step forward for us. We finished in the top 10 which is the most important thing and I'm much happier with the bike.

We had a problem with stopping when I put a new front tyre in, and I only got one lap in because of that. But, we managed to get through so our pace is definitely getting quicker.

We're into Superpole 2 so we're going in the right direction, and the bike is feeling much better around here than Phillip Island. It's a new track that I've had to learn, but after today I'm optimistic we can move forward tomorrow.

Lorenzo Savadori #32 - FP1 - 1'34.991        FP2 - 1'34.554

It wasn't a straight forward day for us. We need to improve the feeling on the bike because I had some small problems today, and for sure we have some more pace to find.

We have another practice session tomorrow and must do the Superpole 1 session which is unfortunate, but we will work hard tonight to make improvements for tomorrow.

We know what the main issue has been today, so it is important for us to solve it quickly and I think we can do better on Saturday.