Kent racer Leon Camier took an impressive 10th place in the first race at the seventh round of the World Superbike Championship at Misano on Sunday.

Camier started from 14th on the grid and was quickly on the pace and involved in a multi-bike battle for top-10 places.

As the race progressed Camier tried to push on, but the technical nature of the 4.226m Italian circuit made overtaking very difficult. With two laps remaining Camier had made his way up to 12th, before passing two riders on the same lap to move into 10th; a position that he held until the chequered flag.

In race two, Camier was in ninth by the fifth lap, but a crash ruined his chances of improving on his race one result. He was uninjured and able to get back on his Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R and rejoin the race to try and salvage something. Camier chased after the pack and eventually came home in 15th place for a final points-scoring position and thoughts of what might have been.

Speaking after the race, the Ashford rider was upbeat despite failing to break the top ten: “I know the results don’t look great, but I’m pretty happy with our potential today – especially race two. We made a bit of a gamble with the settings in race one, because the conditions were quite a bit cooler than they had been, but the settings weren’t spot on and the grip wasn’t too good, so the tyres wore out pretty quickly. I rode as hard as I could, kept a consistent pace; and finished 10th.

“The bike felt really good in race two and I was lapping quickly from the start. I made a lot of progress and was enjoying myself passing people. Everything felt comfortable until a tip-off in turn four. I think I might have gone in a bit slower and tighter than normal and the front suddenly folded and down I went. I got back on the bike and, a lap later, I was just four-tenths-of-a-second slower than my previous best lap.”

“During the race I set times equal to all the top guys except Biaggi. I was the fastest rider in sector four, second in sector five and third in sector one that shows how well the FIXI Crescent Suzuki was going – probably the best it’s been all year! I feel really positive after today and now all we have to do is nail Qualifying and we’ll be up there fighting with the fast guys for sure.”