The Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team scored a double points finish in Race 1 of the Riviera Di Rimini WorldSBK round, as Leon Camier claimed ninth place and Jake Gagne finished in fourteenth position in hot and humid conditions at Misano.

Starting the race on the fourth row of the grid in P10, Camier had a steady start to the race before finding a stronger pace in the second half of the twenty-one lap contest. Camier’s metronomic pace helped him close the gap to the riders in front of him to under a second, however he crossed the finish line in ninth place, a result that means he will line up on the second row of the grid in P6 for Race 2 tomorrow.

For Gagne it was a combative race in the sultry conditions, the rookie setting off from P19 on the grid but in his customary style, he was able to make up numerous places to secure another points-paying position in P14.

The seven points scored by Camier moves him up to eleventh in the overall standings on 82 points, while Gagne remains seventeenth in the standings on 39 points.
The team and riders will now regroup ahead of Race 2 tomorrow at 13:00 local time (GMT +2) with the next session being the Warm Up session at 09:35 tomorrow.

Leon Camier 2

We managed to finish in the top ten but we were expecting more today in the race. Although my pace on used tyres was really good in the second half of the race, I wasn't able to get the most out of the new tyres in the first part of the race which really hurt us. The team and I will look over the data and work out what happened and how to fix it for Race 2. If we can find a solution, then starting from the second row tomorrow I hope we can achieve the kind of result our potential here has shown we're capable of.

Jake Gagne 45

It's been a tough weekend so far, qualifying today didn't go well so I was happy that in the race I could run at a decent pace, make up positions and score some points. I got a good start but on the opening lap got shut out in some corners, but when it settled down I kept a good pace to finish P13 and most importantly, have 21 laps around this circuit which will help me and the team work on things for tomorrow where I hope to be in the points again.

Kervin Bos -  Team Manager

We didn't meet our target in terms of results today which was disappointing. The warmer track conditions for Race 1 meant that Leon was unable to extract the maximum performance out of his tyres in the early laps, although his pace on used tyres - as it has been all weekend - was really strong. We will analyse things overnight to try and make his Fireblade more potent in the early laps to give him the best chance of achieving the result his pace has warranted here at Misano. For Jake, as is his style he could make a step forward in performance in the race after a difficult qualifying session, so to score points from the back of the grid was a good result and we'll work with him to help him achieve the same tomorrow.