FIXI Crescent Suzuki racer Leon Camier finished in eighth place during today's first free practice and qualifying sessions for the 12th round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship from Nurburgring in Germany.

Camier is still suffering from the stiffness and bruising related to the huge crash he had in Russia, but the Englishman didn't let that bother him today on his Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R as he regularly challenged the top positions. In this morning's first free practice Camier twice led the timesheets and following his 14-laps in the first qualifying position he sits in a comfortable position to make his way into tomorrow's Superpole, after recording a time of 1'55.949 which was only 0.642 seconds away from provisional pole-setter Carlos Checa.

John Hopkins still has a bit of work to confirm and consolidate his position in Superpole during tomorrow's final qualifying session. The Anglo-American has little knowledge of the technically-demanding 5,137m German circuit and spent the majority of today's two sessions finding his lines and braking markers, as well as working with his crew to get the set-up right for his FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 around this difficult track. With the added information from today and after having time to acquaint himself with the layout, Hopkins is certain that he will improve tomorrow and be in there challenging on Sunday.

The FIXI Crescent Suzuki duo will have a final qualifying session tomorrow morning to try and claim their positions in the afternoon Superpole session, where they plan to join 14 other riders to battle for the best grid positions in Sunday's two races, the first of which gets underway at 12.00hrs local time (11.00hrs BST).

Leon Camier:

"It was quite a good day for us, but there's definitely room for improvement and I expect the lap times to fall quite a bit. We struggled for grip a bit today, but once we got it, we were able to go faster. This track is not all about horsepower - like some other tracks - and I think the FIXI Crescent Suzuki will be pretty good round here.
"At the end of the day, my right hip was cramping up a bit, so I'll get some ice and a massage this evening to loosen it up. I'm sure that it's not going to be a problem tomorrow or race-day and I'm looking forward to qualifying well and then fighting with the leaders on Sunday."

John Hopkins:

"I have no memory of this track from the last time I was here, so I had to relearn it today. We tried many different settings and threw every possible tyre at the FIXI Crescent Suzuki today to see if we could find some solutions to our chatter problems this year. Unfortunately, the tyre combination we had at the end of today's qualifying was not the right one and I couldn't lap as fast as I wanted, but the good news is that we have made improvements and tomorrow will be a lot better. This is a fun track to ride and I am enjoying it a lot, so I expect to safely get into Superpole and then take it from there."

Jack Valentine -Team Manager:

"It's been a really good day at the office and I'm very pleased that Leon is just 0.136 seconds off the front row. His lap times were good and he was the fastest rider through sector four, so hopefully he will nail the other areas tomorrow and go even quicker. John had more work to do today, but I am confident that he will improve and progress into Superpole. It's been a consistent and good day and all of us at FIXI Crescent Suzuki are looking forward to tomorrow."

Nurburgring - eni FIM Superbike World Championship - Qualifying 1:

1. Carlos Checa (Ducati) 1'55.307:
2. Davide Giugliano (Ducati) 1'55.750:
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1'55.802:
4. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) 1'55.813:
5. Leon Haslam (BMW) 1'55.828.
8. Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 1'55.949.
18. John Hopkins (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 1'57.592.


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