LAVERTY TAKES POLE POSITION
20 August 2005 - Honda Racing

Eugene Laverty has continued to show his undoubted potential on four-stroke machinery by taking his first pole position in the Metabo British Supersport Championship at Silverstone.

The 19-year-old Ulsterman recorded the fastest time of 1:28.908 on his Red Bull Honda CBR600RR in this afternoon’s second session – an impressive feat at the ninth round of his debut season in the ultra-competitive Supersport class.

Laverty has benefited from two productive tests since the last race at Snetterton. The Red Bull Honda team has used the six-week mid-summer break to work with Dunlop Tyres and WP Suspension. It has helped to further develop the young Toomebridge star’s riding style to suit the power and handling characteristics of the back-to-back championship winning machine. His previous experience has been on Honda two-strokes in the British 125GP Championship.

With recent testing being held at the venues for the ninth and tenth rounds of the championship – at Silverstone and Cadwell Park respectively – Laverty is prepared to pick up from where he left off at Snetterton in July. He had led round eight at the Norfolk track before a technical problem restricted him to a lower leaderboard finish.

The luck of the Irish may yet return at Silverstone, but Laverty knows that he still has it all to do in tomorrow’s 20-lap race. An end of session crash reminded him that he must not be complacent, with total concentration required to deliver his first podium finish of the year.

Eugene Laverty: “This is just the boost I needed after the frustration of what happened at Snetterton. We’ve made a lot of progress during testing and I’d like to thank Red Bull Honda, Dunlop and WP for all the assistance they’ve given me in recent weeks – and here at Silverstone this weekend.

“We’ve got a good chassis set-up on the CBR600RR and we’ve been working hard all season to get to this strong position. Now I know that I’ve got to turn around this level of performance over race distance. My confidence is building and there’s no doubt that I’ll be challenging hard for my first podium position of the season.”

Qualifying: 1. E. Laverty (Red Bull Honda) 1:28.908; 2. L. Camier (Honda) 1:29.000; 3. J. Robinson (Honda) 1:29.090; 4. S. Easton (Ducati) 1:29.361; 5. C. Crutchlow (Honda) 1:29.372; 6. P. Riba (Kawasaki) 1:29.598; 7. C. Jones (Honda) 1:29.725; 8. S. Andrews (Suzuki) 1:30.080; 9. R. Frost (Honda) 1:30.231; 10. J. da Costa (Suzuki) 1:30.372

www.honda-racing.co.uk

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