A flame-throwing Camier on his way to 7th place Photo: Fixi Crescent Suzuki

After a strong second place in the morning Q3 session at Phillip Island, Fixi Crescent Suzuki rider Leon Camier was disappointed not to carry that form on as the wick was turned up full by the riders in the afternoon Superpole session.

A safe fifth and seventh in the first two sessions helped the Kent rider comfortably into the all-important third  phase where, for 2013, there’s added weight to the session with the WSB grid now forming three to a row instead of the tradtional four, mirroring MotoGP qualifying. Rather than opting for the softer compound qualifying Pirelli tyre like many others, Camier secured seventh place on the grid for the fast run down to turn one in the early hours of tomorrow morning UK time on race compound tyres, so he’s naturally a little more confident for the double-header of races but strangely still thinks he’ll need a tow from the faster bikes.

Camier had this to say after the Superpole session “I’m not really bowled over with the result in qualifying, but I think our race-pace is a little bit better than seventh. It’s going to be a really hard race tomorrow though, no matter what, because there are a lot of people that can do very good race times. We need to improve in the final sector and get dragged down the straight by the fastest bikes, if we can do that the job will be a little easier. I’ll be hoping to get a strong start tomorrow, the third row means that a good start is even more crucial, so to have a decent race I need to get off the line well, be quite clever on the tactics and hopefully have the pace at the end of the race to do well.”

Cluzel getting to grips with Yoshimura power Photo: Fixi Crescent Suzuki

Jules Cluzel, Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s second rider didn’t fair so well on the qualifying timesheets after a technical problem with his Yohimura-powered GSX-R1000 hindered his progress as he battled back from his injuries sustained in testing. The frenchman said “It has been a strange day because I expected to improve this morning, but after just one fast lap, I had to come in because I had a problem with my engine. This meant no qualifying for me and no chance to improve any more. This afternoon I was looking to do something good in free practice because I wasn’t in the Superpole, but after one lap there was a strange sound from the engine and I had to come back in and the guys needed to open it up to find out what was the problem. We lost a lot of time, but I was able to do two quick laps at the end and my time was better than yesterday. In the three full laps today I improved on every one, so I think my pace was quite good. I haven’t tried a long run yet and I have never been able to do a really fast lap, so I am a little bit frustrated. Tomorrow is the most important day of the weekend and before I came here the main thing was to learn, but tomorrow I still need to discover more because I am a rookie and I have lost a lot of time, so I will have to make up for it on Sunday!”