Leon Camier reckons he needed just one more lap in Saturday’s World Superbike race from Portimao to catch and pass Ducati’s Marco Melandri for a maiden MV Agusta podium finish.
The Briton threatened a strong result throughout free practice, but his challenge was made harder when a technical issue in Superpole left him a lowly 11th on the grid for the first 20-lap encounter in Portugal.
A strong start saw Camier pick off several riders in front of him, and he proceeded to chase down the final podium place as the race wore on.
As he started his final lap, Camier was just 0.7 seconds back from Melandri, but could not get close enough for a pass.
“Yeah, I don’t know whether to be sort of happy or sad really,” he said.
“I saw Marco coming back to me quite early in the race, he managed to get past Eugene (Laverty) and keep a good pace.
“So it was pretty close in the middle of the race laptime wise, but I just started to pick him off again.
“Yeah, (it is) a little bit frustrating. I think if I had another lap I could have got him, it is what it is.
“Hopefully tomorrow, starting not sort of midpack, we can at least put on a good fight and see what happens tomorrow.
“I don’t want to get too excited, it’s easy to think everything’s going to go smoothly, which quite often it doesn’t when you’ve got the opportunity.
“We’ll see what happens tomorrow, but all in all it was a good day.”
The Briton – who will start Sunday’s race from pole – found he was stronger than Melandri under braking, but kept making small mistakes as he pushed to close the gap.
He feels these errors cost him a chance to at least attempt a pass on the Ducati rider on the final tour, but admits he could not have done any more in his pursuit of the podium.
“I made a couple of mistakes in the last few laps, just trying to force the issue.
“The problem was I was strong on the brakes on entry, but my rear tyre was completely destroyed. I think he was struggling with the rear as well.
“I was just trying to make more time on the entry, but in the end I kept making mistakes. It was real hard trying to find that point of not crashing and going fast.
“Couple of little mistakes, a couple of little errors, and I think that’s what stopped me at least trying to pass him on the last lap.
“Frustrated, but I don’t think I could have done anymore.”
