Eugene Laverty and Jonathan Rea score points in Germany
Last updated on .From the section Motorsport
Eugene Laverty and Jonathan Rea were both well in the points at the World Superbike round at the Nurburgring.
Laverty finished fourth in race one and fifth in the second race so he lies fourth in the overall standings on 232.
Rea was 10th in the first race but improved to fourth in race two which was held in rain-lashed conditions.
The Ballyclare rider was making his return to racing after two months out with a wrist injury and had to remount after a crash to finish race two.
The Castrol Honda racer is now 12th in the championship series.
Yamaha rider Laverty was not entirely happy with the set-up of his bike in race one and lost almost three seconds when he ran off the circuit at one point.
The Toomebridge rider had managed to get ahead of his team-mate Marco Melandri but, in the end, had to settle for fourth behind winner Carlos Checa, runner-up Melandri and Noriyuki Haga.
The German track was saturated for race two because of heavy rain which delayed the start, but both Northern Ireland riders made a promising start.
The second race was halted after 13 laps because of the deteriorating conditions which had ended the hopes of several riders, including runaway leader Haga.
Rea suffered with a clutch problem throughout the race and remounted after a high speed fall into turn one on lap 13.
England's Tom Sykes won the race from Sylvain Guintoli and Jakub Smrz.
"I struggled in race one with acceleration and front and rear grip while race two was insane in those conditions," said Rea.
Laverty was even more forthright in his criticism of the authorities:
"The organisers are lucky that all the riders escaped with our lives in race two - I'd love to have given them a pillion ride."
Checa now heads the standings on 376 points, 74 points ahead of nearest challenger Melandri.
