Gregorio Lavilla secured a top ten championship position after the weekend's two races at Phillip Island, and reckons that the Paul Bird Motorsport team has reason to look for better results as the season goes on.
The Spanish Vent-Axia VK Honda rider took eleventh place in race one, and followed that up with eighth in race two at the Australian seaside circuit on Sunday, improving on his results from the opening round in Qatar a week ago, despite not yet having a 2008-specification Fireblade at his disposal.
Glorious sunshine and temperatures of over 28°C made race day the hottest part of the weekend, but complicated the team's task of finding the right set-up and making the right tyre choice. Once again, Lavilla took time to acclimatise himself to the feel of his tyres, and finished in a gaggle of other Honda riders, close to his former BSB sparring partner
Ryuichi Kiyonari as he just missed out on the top ten.
However, after fitting a different front tyre for race two, the Spaniard made great progress from his Superpole qualifying position of 14th and was able to climb to eighth place, reassuringly close to overall winner
Troy Bayliss.
"I was behind some riders in race one and felt that I could go quicker, but I was losing the front tyre every lap on the important corner before the main straight," he reflected later, "I thought that the tyre was finished.
"It was the first time I'd used this [tyre], but that is the one everyone uses. I struggled until I realised I could take the corner a different way and then I ended up chasing Kiyo and Haga. It took a while to realise what to do, but I learned how to use the front better.
"We were not far away from the podium positions [in race two] and only twelve seconds from the winner. If we can work this way on the new bike, then we can be optimistic. Now we hope lots of people will come [to Valencia], because I think the Spanish riders here are doing well."
