Britain’s Leon Camier says he doesn’t know whether to be happy that he took fourth place in today’s first Portugese WorldSBK race at Portimao or sad he missed a maiden podium for MV by three-tenths of a second.

The former BSB champion came back from a disastrous Superpole to scythe his way through the pack to get on to the rear wheel of Marco Melandri with a couple of laps left. But Camier had used so much rear tyre, he was trying to make up time on corner entry and just couldn’t get those final couple of fractions to make it past the former world champion.

“I don’t know whether to be happy or sad, really. I saw Marco was coming back to me in the early part of the race and then he managed to get past Eugene and keep a good pace. We were pretty close on laptimes in the middle of the race and then I started to pick him off again,” said Camier, speaking at the track.

“It’s a bit frustrating, I think with another lap I could have got him but it is what it is. Hopefully tomorrow not starting mid-pack will mean we can put up a good fight. I don’t want to get too excited and all in all it was a good day.

“I made a couple of mistakes on the last lap. I was good on the brakes on corner entry but the trouble is my rear was destroyed. I think he was struggling with the rear as well. I tried to make more and more time on the entry but I started to make mistakes. It was hard to find that point of not crashing and going fast. I don’t feel I could have done any more.”