Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier was happier with his performance in the second World Superbike race at Monza, where he finished seventh, but struggled in the opening leg where problems with his brakes on the big GSX-R halted his progress.
In race two his team changed the setup of the bikes and the brakes to make a small improvement and he gre in confidence but he was still not completely satisfied with the results. In race two Camier started from eighth on the grid and held that position over the first three laps and kept in contention with the leading group.
As the race wore on the Englishman pushed on through the field and was up to sixth by lap-six. He then got involved in a battle with Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano and Red Devils Roma rider Michel Fabrizio over the rest of the race, before Camier crossed the finishing line in seventh to confirm his comeback to fitness and equal his best result of the season so far and move into the top-10 in the championship. Team-mate Jules Cluzel had a second race to forget as he crashed on the second lap and ended his weekend early.
Camier is still recovering from a knee injury, and only had his stitches removed this week, which is still causing him some pain, but the rider did not let that get in the way of his racing and is now planning ahead for his home race at Donington Park in two weeks.
“I had a pretty good start in the second race and got past Jules on the first lap. I then tried to get in a rhythm and not lose the tow. It took me a lap or two to get the feel and confidence in the brakes, because we’d made a change to them for the second race. They felt ok, not as good in performance, but more consistent, so at least I could race with them,” said Camier.
“The set-up of the bike also worked better and let me do a bit more in the race, but I think the results today are what we can expect at this track. Yoshimura and the Crescent team have done a great job and the engine performance is in a different world to last year, but I don’t think we could have done much more here.”
