Lavilla proud for Ducati.

Gregorio Lavilla, a great surprise performer for the Airwaves Ducati team, came away from the first round of the British Superbike championship second in the riders standings.

Called in at the last minute for the injured James Haydon, Lavilla went straight to work getting his lap times down on the Ducati 999 F04 machine.

As the weekend went on Lavilla got faster and faster eventually recording two podium positions, beating his team-mate and BSB regular Leon Haslam in the process.

"I'm Proud for myself but also GSE, Ducati and all the engineers here," he explained to Crash.net after the second race. "We did a very good job and learnt a lot about the machine."

In the second race Lavilla came up against his team-mate Haslam as he sliced through the field. As there were no team orders at the GSE team, despite Lavilla not being in the title chase, the Spanish rider was free to race the long-term Ducati rider.

"I passed everyone today in a very clean way, and with Leon it was the same. I saw my chance and I took it!"

Lavilla goes to the second round of the championship at Thruxton in second position in the tables with 36 points, 24 points behind Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari who tops the riders standings with 50 points.