Michael Laverty got back to winning ways at Knockhill in Scotland on his Pirelli shod Relentless Suzuki, increasing his lead in the Maxxis British Supersport championship to 19 points over team-mate Ian Lowry, who finished fifth at the end of 20 laps in changeable conditions.
 
Only two weeks ago at Mondello Park in Ireland, Laverty was robbed of his perfect ‘podium at every round’ record, but the normally mild-mannered Toomebridge man said the gloves would be off for the rest of the season. Having topped all but one leaderboard all weekend, Laverty was nothing short of prolific, and a shrewd tyre choice [full wet set-up] on the grid for the race certainly helped his cause.

Michael Laverty
“If I hadn’t won this weekend I would have been really disappointed. I felt I should have won at Mondello and we all know why I didn’t! I felt strong all weekend here at Knockhill and the combination of Suzuki, Pirelli and WP Suspension worked perfectly for me, but the conditions today could have come down to a lottery type tyre choice. I had pretty much made up my mind on a dry set-up, as I haven’t got that much experience with the Pirelli wet tyres, but Philip Neill suggested I use a hard compound wet instead – it was a good decision. I’m pretty easy on the throttle and I didn’t push too hard too soon; I just stayed as smooth as I could. With four laps to go I had a good gap and decided to give them a bit of stick and enjoyed the win. I’ve gapped the rest in the championship again so I’ll leave Scotland in a good frame of mind.”

Ian Lowry
“It went ok. I’m happy enough to take the points this weekend in the conditions. I was losing a lot of time in the third sector but with a couple of laps to go I actually thought I could have had second place. Unfortunately I’d used the best of my wet tyre by then, and I got mugged by the boys using a dry set-up at the end. I am disappointed at missing out on a podium but every rider has a bad day and I’m still in second place in the championship. The team did a great job for me as they always do and I can’t fault our set-up, it was just one of those weekends. Roll on Oulton Park.”
 

Philip Neill – Team Principal
“It looked at one stage like we might not get to race this weekend with the torrential rain on Sunday, so a big ‘hats off’ to the organisers for keeping everything running and getting us out on track. It was certainly a tough day in the changeable conditions and it got to the stage where I thought, no tyre choice would be the correct one! I actually enjoy these situations as the whole team come into play, but I’ll take nothing away from Michael’s performance – he was simply outstanding.
Some of the guys on the grid thought we were mad running full wets but a big thank you to Pirelli who certainly make the best tyres for these conditions. Michael did everything correctly: he took the lead and built up a gap that the rest couldn’t match. Ian maybe didn’t handle his wet tyre just as well as Michael, but to be fair to him, he had to battle out there in a group, whereas Michael was able to dictate his own pace and stayed smooth.
Again Suzuki have proved how reliable and competitive the GSX–R600 really is, but I must also thank WP Suspension and Pirelli who completed the winning package for us this weekend.
This week we go to Croft and Mallory for a week of testing, as I want to give both riders every opportunity to keep the pressure on our rivals.