Ashford’s Leon Camier netted the FIXI Crescent Suzuki team’s best result of the season in the eni FIM Superbike World Championship at Portimao on Sunday afternoon.

He finished in fourth place in the first race of the day after starting 13^th on the grid before he retired in the second race of the weekend with mechanical problems.

It is even more remarkable for him to have finished fourth after he was down in 15^th place after the opening lap of the race.

He wasted no time either in moving his way through the field and showing that his bike had the pace there to be right up with the front runners if he had qualified higher than 13^th.

As Jonathan Rea and Eugene Laverty were forced to retire with issues, Camier was in the right place to pounce and move up the race order, and as if to underline it further he only finished nine seconds behind eventual race winner Marco Melandri.

It was his and the team’s best result of the season and it gives them a great platform for them to push forward for the rest of the season.

In race two of the weekend he was closing on 6^th place fast when a mechanical issue on lap 12 forced him to retire when he was on for another great finish.

Teammate Jules Cluzel was once again showing that he is having a strong rookie season by finishing in the top ten in both races. He finished in 8^th place in race one and then in race two he came through from fourteenth to 7^th.

Giving his reaction to a mixed weekend Camier said: “I got an ok start in the first race and made a bit of progress, but as I went past Haslam on the inside – and was well past him! – he let the brake off in the turn and punted into me.

“I lost some time and dropped back some places and had the job of trying to catch-up and get through the field, so from 15th to fourth is a pretty-good result. The bike felt good, I felt like I could pass really well; and the speed of the FIXI Crescent Suzuki has definitely improved. This showed on the straight because I could exit on the last turn and keep the momentum going so I could pass at the end of the straight, which I haven’t been able to do before, so I was really happy about that.

“At the start of the second race I had a problem with the electronics and the bike didn’t pull away as it should. I made a few places up, but didn’t feel quite as strong as I did in the first race, but I kept pushing and I was getting in a good rhythm when a problem with the bike didn’t allow me to continue.

“I was hoping that I could have made up some more places, because I could see the group in front coming back to me, so I think that fourth or fifth was achievable, but we will never know now!”

The team now head back to their base in the UK before they head out to Imola for the next round of the season over the last weekend in June.