The Splitlath Redmond team had another solid learning weekend at Round Two of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Thruxton.

John Laverty was pleased to make steady progress finishing 25th and 26th in today’s two races, while youngster Florian Marino bounced back from a retirement in Race One to finish 24th in the second.

As the squad still works around the teething troubles associated with a brand new team and bike, both riders leave Thruxton upbeat about the rest of the season, happy with the data collected after three days on track.

And for Laverty, crossing the line after his third race back in the saddle is another huge milestone in his recovery process.

“It’s an on-going thing and another two finishes today is brilliant for me,” he said.

“It’s still early doors but I’m getting myself back up to speed at a good pace. To get another two full race distances under my belt is very important. I was tired out at the end of Friday, the track was pretty hard on me, but over the course of the weekend my fitness has improved and it’s brilliant to be able to have gone two full races.

“We’ve got loads more data now to go away with and work with. We have tried a lot of things here. Some worked, some didn’t but we’ve got a much better idea about things now and this will all help us as the season moves forward.”

Marino is also feeling happier with the pace of his Aprilia RSV4, particularly after Race Two. Having retired with a technical fault in this afternoon’s first race, he had made another quick start in the second, searing through the pack from 28th to 18th until he started to struggle with tyre wear as the race approached the midway point.

“It started very well, I was fast and making my way up,” he said. “The bike felt very good but from about Lap Nine it wasn’t as good as I struggled with the tyres.

“But I was making some good laps. I got some nice fast laps in which would have put me well inside the top 15, and this is very good data now to take with us to Oulton Park.”

Team Co-owner John Dimbylow was happy with the weekend, and believes the team can move forward at a more rapid pace from here.

“It’s been a good weekend all in all,” he said. “We’ve had one or two problems with the motors but the riders did extremely well.

“John is working steadily back towards fitness, and Florian once again demonstrated his fantastic ability at the start of the race.

Unfortunately the tyre went off quite early but this is all part of the learning process for an 18-year-old who is new to superbikes.

“The team did a fantastic job this weekend in the face of all sorts of issues. We were happy to be joined by Marco Bertolatti from the Aprilia factory this weekend to assist with chassis set-up, and we now have a few weeks to go away and do some testing and make preparations for the next round, where we should have our new engines.”

The team will be back to racing action at Oulton Park over the Bank Holiday weekend May 5-7, 2012.

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