Leon Camier says is happy with his pace at the Lausitzring today but knows there is still a mountain to climb before he can celebrate a podium finish.

The MV Agusta man came good in the final few laps of the first World Superbike race of the weekend to take fifth behind the Althea BMW of Jordi Torres, having started the race from seventh on the grid and dropping down to ninth in the first couple of laps.

But in the closing laps he had second and third place finishers Tom Sykes and Nicky Hayden in his sights, and was able to run a pace which wasn’t too far off the podium men.

“I’ve got to be really happy with that, we had sort of a couple of dramas over the weekend and I didn’t really think it would be possible, especially to be so strong at the end, catching Sykes and Hayden,” he said.

“All of a sudden right at the end of the race we were in a pretty close group, so to have the podium pace I’m really happy – to actually make the podium I think is a different story.”

Camier knows there is still some work to be done if the iconic MV is to ever become a race-winning machine, and hinted that there probably won’t be any major strides forward until next year.

“I know where we’re lacking in a few areas and to make that step is something the guys need to work hard on over the winter.

“But hopefully if we can improve the setting a little bit for tomorrow and maybe we can be a little bit stronger but we’ll see. We have to see how warm-up goes and hopefully we can figure something else out.”