Two great race day rides after a troubled time in qualifying at Brno saw Joan Lascorz end up as the most successful Kawasaki rider last weekend. Having been only 19th in qualifying, partly due to a crash on Friday and a partially blocked fuel line in final qualifying, he missed out on Superpole, and started each race from way back on the fifth row.

Summoning all his powers he made big advances on a good tyre choice and scored ninth in race one and eighth in race two, leapfrogging his fellow Kawasaki rider Tom Sykes in the championship standings. Joan is now 13th overall, with 88 points, having been in the top five on two occasions in individual races, once at Donington and once at Motorland Aragon.

For Lascorz 2011 is obviously a learning experience, but one that is being conducted at a high level already. "To go from 19th into the top ten two times is very good in the circumstances; good for me and the team. They were hard races and I had to pass a lot of other riders. Haslam and I battled together and with two laps to go I passed him in the last corner and touched him. In the next lap he did the same to me, but no problems. I have no problems with it, it's just racing! We made the improvement in race one by changing the traction control a little and in the second race I only changed the suspension a small amount, based on my experiences of race one. The tyres were the same (in each race). I felt very good through the second race."