FIXI Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier will start tomorrow’s final two races of the 2012 eni FIM Superbike World Championship season from the head of the third row after qualifying in ninth at Magny-Cours in France today.
Camier – who announced today that he will be remaining with the FIXI Crescent Suzuki team for next season – easily qualified for this afternoon’s Superpole by finishing in 13th position in this morning’s final timed practice. He made his way comfortably through Superpole 1 with the 10th quickest time around the 4,411m French track and then narrowly missed out on progressing to the final eight-rider shoot-out for the front two rows, by just 0.093 seconds. Camier looked like making Superpole 3, and was on his fast lap on a qualifying tyre, but had to ease off the throttle when Max Biaggi made a mistake at the final chicane right in front of him. Although the FIXI Crescent Suzuki man only lost a-fraction-of-a-second, it was enough to prevent him from getting into the final session. Camier will be looking to end the season in style, as he now looks to begin his preparation for 2013, now that his future with the team is sealed.
Camier will be FIXI Crescent Suzuki’s sole representative for the rest of this weekend, following the decision by John Hopkins to withdraw from the event after aggravating his hip injury during this morning’s session. Hopkins only managed two laps onboard his Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R today, before returning to the pits in a considerable amount of pain. More details on his condition will be announced once Hopkins has had the chance to assess the injury.
Today’s pole position was secured by Tom Sykes on a Kawasaki, his ninth Superpole title of the season. Current championship leader Biaggi qualified in 10th, as he bids to win the sixth title of his career tomorrow. The pace of today’s Superpole was so high, that the top-13 all finished inside the previous lap record time.
Camier will take to the Magny-Cours circuit for the 23-laps of race one at 12.00hrs local time (11.00hrs BST) on Sunday, with race two scheduled to get underway at 15.30hrs local time (14.30hrs BST), and with the title still up-for-grabs for Biaggi, Sykes and Marco Melandri, it looks like being an action-packed day.
Leon Camier:
“If it hadn’t been for the incident in Superpole 2, I reckon I would’ve made it into Superpole 3. The margin between success and failure is so small and when you lose even a-fraction-of-a-second, it can make a big difference. But that’s what racing’s all about and once again I’m going to have to get good starts and get with the lead group as soon as I can. I know my race pace is good and the FIXI Crescent Suzuki is strong at the end of the races, so I’m pretty confident that I can be in the mix at the finish. The first turn is going to be very hectic for sure and, apart from making good starts, I need to keep out of trouble and then attack as soon as I can.”
John Hopkins:
”It’s a shame that my season ended this way, but my priority is to get my hip sorted out and if I had carried on today, I might have been a danger both to myself and the others on the track. There’s hardly been a time this year when I’ve ridden without pain and last night I couldn’t get any sleep because I just couldn’t get comfortable, so I had no choice but to pull out.”
Jack Valentine - Team Manager:
“Once again we’ve seen how competitive this series is and the smallest of differences can make or break your grid position. It’s a shame that Leon missed out on Superpole 3, but we know what he and the FIXI Crescent Suzuki can do in the race and we’ll all be hoping that he makes some good starts and be fighting with the leaders - as we know he can do. I am particularly happy because we’ve shown that our bike can be competitive and challenge the leaders and hopefully we’ll see Leon get some more good results tomorrow.
“It is a pity that John couldn’t finish the season. We’ve seen flashes of the old John this year, but he’s obviously been in pain a lot of the time and that has stopped him from doing what he does best. We all wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back in action at full strength again.”
Magny-Cours – eni FIM Superbike World Championship - Superpole:
1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1'36.950: 2. Carlos Checa (Ducati) 1'37.422: 3. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) 1'37.516: 4. Marco Melandri (BMW) 1'37.658: 5. Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati) 1'37.901: 9. LEON CAMIER (FIXI CRESCENT SUZUKI) 1'38.072: 19. JOHN HOPKINS (FIXI CRESCENT SUZUKI) 1'40.538: