Eugene Laverty swapped Aprilia's RSV4 World Sup𓃲erbike for the factory's R﷽S-GP MotoGP racer during an eye-opening private test at Jerez in late November.

The Irishman, who cl💟aimed a best MotoGP finish of fourth during two seasons on satellite Ducati machinery, returned to WorldSBK with Aprilia last season.

In ꧅addition, Laverty is contracted to perform test ri💎ding duties and was called-up at Jerez to replace the healing Aleix Espargaro.

That meant Laverty rode for five successive days at 𒆙the Spanish circuit; two on the Superbike and then three, alongside new Aprilia signing Scott Redding, on the grand prix macಞhine.

"We were trying to work out how many laps I've done and we think it's about 360. No🌳t bad! We ride in circles, so 360 is a nice number," Laওverty quipped.

Laverty - who rode the RS-GP at Valencia and Jerez a year ago - soon adapted to the grand prix bike ♚and Michelin tyres, revelling in its braking capabilities after a season spent strugg🌠ling to stop the RSV4 in World Superbike.

"I꧂t was the opposi🔯te bike!" Laverty explained. "That was cool for me to experience because the problem I've had with the Superbike this year is so much weight on the front.

"I've almost had to adapt my riding style to ride with st♑raight arms, try and sit as far back as I can to get the weight off the front.

"But this [MotoGP] bike has got a really rigid front and, for my size, is quite far away. I had to try and ri♒de up over the front, like Simon Crafar, to keep load on the front wheel.

"So in that respect the two bikes are opposites.

"But the bigg🍬est strength of the [MotoGP] bike is the braking and on my second or third exit I was already matching Aleix's braking.

"I know he's a really strong braker, but I am too when the bike is capable, so♕ that felt good. It was just that we lost all the time in the fast♏er corners."

Part of the reason for the fast-corn🐟er difficulties was simply the height difference between Laver๊ty and Espargaro.

"I'm rid☂ing Aleix's bike and he's a tall guy, so we'd need to change the bike to suit me and that wasn't real𓆏ly on the cards here," Laverty said.

"Riding Aleix's bike, in the fast corners I can't load the front enough, because he's a tall guy and he's up 🐻at the front. I can't do that so the bike starts hopping away.

"We tried to 𝐆load the front more to help in the fast corners by playing around with things like springs and preload, but it was give-and-take because it messes up the slow corners, the hard braking and rear grip."

Had bigger changes been possible, Laverty was clﷺear about the solution:

"We knew what we had to do geometry-wise; the front wheel is too far away from me, so we'd just have to move it c𒅌loser and everything would be fine🐈.

"Instead I wasn't really able to attack the bike and that was frustrating. But the bike has such potentia🐈l and works well, as Scott showed with 🦄his lap time."

Click below to watch Laverty testing the RS-GP at Jerez:

Laverty had 𝐆finished the opening day with best lap of 1m 39.995s, around half-a-second from Redding, who made his debut on the machine at the previous Valencia test.

The Englishman went on to set a 1m 38.778s, which was 0.748s behind the faste☂st final-day MotoGP lap by Suzuki's Andrea Iannone and just over one-second from the best of the week by Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso.

Laverty, unable 𝄹to shed the racer's urge for a fast ti🎀me, felt frustrated that he didn't make the most of a 'Superpole' opportunity on the final day.

"I waౠs a bit pissed because I didn't get a chance to really extract a lap time fro꧅m it," he said.

"I had a little go at the end. We put in a new tyre and I was on course for a 1m 38s, but I locked the frꦜont under braking into Turn 8, on the kerb.

"I left a nice black line there on what was my fastest lap and lost over half-a-sꦉecond."

That big front-end s💖lide meant Laverty, tenth overall with a best result of fourth in his comeback World Superbike season, concluded the MotoGP test with a time of 1m 39.537s.

"While I'm here as a test rider, you are still a racer. I'm not past that poi🥀nt of wanting to go fast. But that's the only thing I'm kicking myself for; I had a little Superpole moment and messed up!"

Perhaps the best news for Laverty was that by making a direct comparison between the two Aprilia machines, on the same track and ju🧸st days a𓄧part, he could illustrate to the engineers exactly where the Superbike is lacking.

"Testing the Superbike and MotoGP bike here teaches us a lo🧸t," he said. "When the guys saw what I was able to🐷 do in braking on the MotoGP bike, straight away…

"I've been on a bike that doesn't want to stop and then you put me on a bike that does want to stop and I'm matching Espargaro, who i𒀰s one of the latest brakers in MotoGP.

"ꦍSo we know what we’ve got to do. The front-end of the MotoGP bike is completely the opposite of the Superbike and we've got to learn from that."