Eugene Laverty's new role in 2012 will be as an official Aprilia rider, and at the recent Portimao post-race tests he got his first chance to ride the RSV4R racebike. In the single day test, which ended early at 15.00 hours on Tuesday, Laverty actually proved to be fastest of all, with a lap time of 1'42.8 seconds after some early adjustment to the small and densely packed Aprilia.

"That felt pretty good," said Laverty, who continued, "and I did a 1'42.8, and a few other fast laps too. When I first rode it, it felt small and I noticed how much I could move around the bike. We had to make some changes, from the base setting that Aprilia has. We had some chatter and some harshness and we really worked through a lot really and by the end we had all but fixed all the problems we had. Everything I had heard about the Aprilia was a little bit scared of the rigidity, the lack of engine brake but it was no problems at the end of me. For me the engine brake was fine and I thought there would be less. I was looking forward to riding this bike and it has really impressed me."