Round 13 of the MotoGP World Championship saw Penrith-based PBM MotoGP team riders Michael Laverty and Broc Parkes in action at Misano for the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini where once again they scored a double finish.
Despite inclement weather during Friday's Free Practice, Ulsterman Laverty, on the Rapid Solicitors and Silkolene-backed Aprilia ART-powered PBM was 15th in session one and was also on the pace in the second session before continuing his form into Saturday's drier conditions where he slotted onto row six of the grid.
Australian team-mate Parkes, on the Silkolene-backed PBM, could not find a good setting but did manage to improve and qualified in 20th place on row seven of the grid.
Former British Supersport Champion Laverty got a great start and held 19th for the opening laps before climbing the leaderboard to run in 17th for most of the race as Parkes, twice runner-up in the World Supersport Championship, chased him hard.
As the race progressed, Laverty suffered rear brake problems and Parkes' rear tyre started to deteriorate although the pair crossed the line with Laverty gamely battling to 17th and Parkes just one place behind him at the flag.
The results see Parkes maintain his 20th position overall in the 2014 MotoGP World Championship table, seventh in the Open class standings and third in Rookie of the Year. Laverty still occupies 23rd place and 11th in the Open class. Importantly for the PBM team, they hold fifth place in the manufacturer's table and 11th in the team's standings.
The PBM MotoGP team is next in action at the Aragon in Spain next weekend for round 14 of the series.
Michael Laverty: "It was a difficult race for me today, I expected to have more pace but I struggled to stop the bike in the early stages. I was working the rear brake really hard and it overheated before mid-distance and I struggled a lot once I lost the rear brake. It didn't change the end result massively, I may have gained a position but like I've always said I can go home happy when I get the maximum out of myself and the bike and today I didn't achieve that."
Image removed by sender.Broc Parkes: "We got a good start and in the first corner we were in the battle, then one guy crashed next to me and the bike went so high in the air, but luckily it didn't hit me. We were behind the Hondas and Michael and the next lap Petrucci crashed right in front of me and his bike nearly cleaned me up. Luckily I saw it coming and just missed it but I dropped a couple of seconds. My pace in the first half of the race wasn't too bad; I was running with a couple of the Hondas and Michael up to half race. In the last half I had no grip as I've been struggling with for the last couple of races. It's definitely improved, we're going forward and its more positive, I had a good battle with Barbera in the later part of the race, it was nice to battle with somebody but we still need to make another step up for Aragon"
Phil Borley, Technical Director: "We were hoping for a better race today after a positive qualifying, but the times were not quite as good as we were expecting, possibly due to the higher temperatures. Michael struggled with corner entry and had a rear brake problem mid race, and Broc also had problems with corner entry. However it was another double finish and we will analyse the data to improve our settings for the next race."
