MV Agusta’s Leon Camier believes he should be in a position to challenge for a top-six place in Sunday’s pair of World Superbike race at Donington Park after setting the quickest time in the first practice session and finding consistent, fast pace on used tyres.
The former British Superbike Champion spent the final session this after using a pair of worn rear Pirellis and says he can stay in the low 1’29s which is only a tenth or so shy of Chaz Davies’ works Ducati.
“I think that was the last few per cent we had, I am struggling to do one lap faster. Where I need to keep the bike on full throttle, change direction and be aggressive it doesn’t accept my input as the chassis is a little too soft at the moment,” said Camier, speaking to bikesportnews.com.
“It’s quite easy to tie in knots but to keep the bike smooth, I have to back off in places. We’re working on a race setting that is as perfect as possible, we’re looking at every little detail and getting it as good as we can.
“We can be stronger in the race than we can in qualifying, so I need to be able to pass. I made some strong passes at Imola and if we have good grip, we can roll off up off the turns and stick it up the inside of people at places like the Old Hairpin, but we haven’t got the power to do it into the chicanes and stuff.
“I think we should be ok for the race. We are a quarter of a second off fourth place but I don’t think the qualifying tyre will help us here. Having said that, I didn’t think it would at Imola and it did.
“In the third practice I stayed out on old tyres and I could do low 1’29s, which is good. Chaz has got one or two tenths more than us and Badovini is the same behind so we in the right area and I can usually ride well on old tyres.”
