Michael Laverty signs up for second year in MotoGP

Northern Ireland's Michael Laverty will compete in MotoGP for a second year with the Paul Bird team in 2014.

The 32-year-old Toomebridge rider will be joined by Australian Broc Parkes on board the PBM Aprilias.
Laverty, the British Supersport champion in 2004, ended his debut MotoGP season in 25th place overall, with a best result of 13th at Jerez.
Parkes, 31, raced a Kawasaki for the PBM team in World Superbikes in 2009.
"We learned so much in year one and I am delighted Paul has continued his involvement with MotoGP and given me the opportunity to continue with the project," said Laverty.
"Everyone has told me that year two is much easier, so the aim is to put into place what we have learned and to raise our game.
"The class is going to be a lot tougher with the new production bikes, but our aim is to consistently score points."

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Marquez threw down the Friday morning gauntlet with a best lap time of 1’34.476. As the sun shone, Pedros,a recovered from early bike vibrations to move to within a quarter of a second of Marquez, while Jorge Lorenzo pipped Valentino Rossi by 76 thousandths; incidentally, Misano marks a critical weekend for the Yamaha pairing as they hope their seamless system will move them closer to the pace-setting Hondas.
At the start of this penultimate European race weekend prior to the Asian triple-header, 2012 Misano podium finisher Alvaro Bautista was fifth for GO&FUN Honda Gresini, ahead of LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl and Ducati Team pairing Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso. Michele Pirro was ninth for Ignite Pramac Racing, while Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro placed his CRT machine inside the top ten, ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow.
Second free practice will be underway from 2:05pm local time (GMT +2)