Leon Camier narrowly missed out on a debut podium with the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team, the Briton claiming a hard-fought fourth place in Race 1 of the Thai WorldSBK round after a stellar qualifying performance saw him start on the front row.

After a brilliant showing in Superpole 2 where he set a time of 1’32.922 on the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 to qualify in P3, Camier had a great start to the race and settled into third place for the opening laps. A well-calculated move on Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes saw Camier move up to second place after a few laps, a position he held until lap 13 when he was demoted back to third place by Ducati’s Xavi Fores.

Camier then enjoyed a fierce battle with Ducati’s Chaz Davies and was relegated to fourth place on the penultimate lap, ultimately finishing just 0.8 seconds short of a podium result. Camier’s fourth place not only secured a good haul of points but also ensures he will start from pole position in Race 2 tomorrow.

In contrast it was a challenging race for Jake Gagne on the other Fireblade, the Amercian rider was unable to replicate his good form from earlier in the weekend and finished outside of the points in eighteenth place. Gagne is confident he can turn things around for tomorrow and once again challenge for points in Race 2, where he will start from the fifth row on the grid in P14.

There will be a fifteen minute Warm Up session at 11:30 local time (GMT +7) tomorrow before the lights go out for Race 2 at 16:00.


Leon Camier 2

Today I was really happy with my performance but not quite happy with the result as I was so close to the podium! Although I missed the podium, there were a lot of positive things to take away from the day and the Fireblade was working really well. We made a small setting adjustment for Superpole which improved my one lap pace and helped put me on the front row, and we also made another small change for the race which was another step forward and meant I could challenge right at the front. Overall I am really happy with how today went - I think we're close to consistently challenging the front guys - and we'll see what I can do tomorrow in Race 2 from pole position.

Jake Gagne 45

It was a rough day today; I was happy with my pace coming into qualifying but I had a crash in Superpole 1 due to making a small mistake which meant I couldn't get into Superpole 2. The race was a tough one too, I got pushed wide in turn one and then had to try make up ground, but I wasn't comfortable on the bike and found it hard to challenge the guys in front of me. I'm looking to get out there tomorrow and make up for today, we'll try a couple of small changes in Warm Up to get the bike behaving better and I'll push to get back in the points.

Kervin Bos -Team Manager

It was an amazing race with Leon running at the front and being so close to the podium and came after our first front row qualification for the year. It shows just how much we've progressed in the development of the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 and Leon was able to show what it was capable of today. Everyone in the team is continuing to work hard and with Leon starting on pole position for Race 2, we feel we can achieve another strong result tomorrow. For Jake this was his toughest day of the season so far. It is a new circuit for him and things in the race weren't a true reflection of his pace here this weekend and he had a couple of small crashes. However, tomorrow is another opportunity and I am sure he can bring it back and add to his points tally for the season.


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