It didn’t bother me in the slightest but I think Michael was getting a bit frustrated knowing the times he was able to do around there last year on the Michelins. He ended up about 1 sec of Kiyo and Karl Harris, I was almost another second behind that again but quietly happy and content. I spent the first day and a half testing things, then just before lunch time on the second day I headed out on a new tyre and my second lap was almost a full second faster than what I had posted previously, so I thought I should get my head down for a lap to see what I could do.
I came up to the chicane a bit fast and I probably should have just went straight on but I thought it’s been a good lap I can get it through here. I tipped in with the front brake on a bit too hard and the front let go. It was only a small off but embarrassing all the same! I ended up parking that bike (my number 1 bike) for the rest of the day and rode my spare with the new engine management system on it, and back to the testing role but I was now matching my time from the lap before the crash consistently with out pushing. I was disappointed when it was too cold the following day to go any quicker as I had my number 1 bike back, I had missed the opportunity to put down some fast laps but we still got through some testing work on the final day.
We had a rest day before we moved onto Guadix for a further 2 days testing, most of the day off was spent taking Euros off Rutter as we raced TOCA on our Sony PSPs for money. At the start each race was worth 5 euros but before long Blade was putting down 20 euros a race, in the end I felt bad taking his money so I had to call it a day when he put down 50 to try and recoup some money. It certainly made the day go in faster, my brother Eugene and Johnny Rea joined us later at the hotel for a 4 way link up, but Eugene was too good and kept beating us so we stopped playing for money!
![Michael Laverty [Pic credit: Gavan Caldwell]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/180805.jpg)
