from Twowheelsblog
Scoring a third place and a victory in today’s World Superbike round at Monza, Eugene Laverty confirmed his personal affinity for the temple of speed. Of the six victories that the Northern Irishman has so far in his superbike career, three of them were obtained at the high speed Italian circuit.
With these two precious podiums Laverty was further able to shorten the distance to just 16 points from standings leader and team mate Sylvain Guintoli.
After losing the first race by a mere one tenth of a second in a stunning three way battle, Laverty changed his tatics in race 2 and decided to play the waiting game, only to pounce in the final laps and this time closing the door and not giving any room to Marco Melandri to try nose ahead of him.
“This was a great day for me. After the podium in Race 1 it was nice to end the weekend with a victory. Especially since I was a bit disappointed because I had a shot at the top step of the podium in the first race as well if I had managed the end differently. We showed that we can be fast and consistent on two very different tracks like Assen and Monza. My RSV4 did extremely well for me. On this track the speed and balance of the bike in braking are essential. The points situation is excellent if you consider the double dnf in Aragon, but I’ve already left those difficulties behind and I count on doing well at the next round in Donington as well. Even though it will be an ‘almost’ home round, it has never been a particularly favourable track for me, but I think this year I’ve got everything in order to bridge this gap as well”, said Laverty.
Tom Sykes controversial off track excursion at the Roggia chicane on the final lap of Race 2 left a bitter tase in Sylvain Guintoli’s mouth after he saw the Kawasaki rider on the podium celebrating, but Aprilia lodged an appeal and two hours later the Race Direction after reviewing the footage, made the decision to demote the Kawasaki rider to fourth and awarded the French rider the third place podium.
Guintoli later celebrated the third place standing on plastic stool with three scribbled on it with his trophy and a bouquet of flowers, waiting to drink some Italian prosecco.
“What an exciting weekend! In Race 1 I felt like I was really fast until the halfway point and then my feeling dropped, so the fourth place finish was the most I could get. In the second race I had a better pace. The others were struggling a lot more to overtake me but in the last two laps I wasn’t able to keep Eugene and Melandri’s pace. The decision that was taken after Sykes’ manoeuvre seemed obvious to me immediately. I’m happy with third place even though I missed out on the podium celebration because the Team deserved it after working so hard. For the championship these are really important points”, commented Guintoli.
