Leon Camier believes he is well placed to compete at the front of this weekend’s races at Phillip Island, whatever its notoriously unpredictable weather brings. The Red Bull Honda rider was second fastest on Friday, securing him an easy passage to Superpole 2 on Saturday, with race one to follow later in the afternoon.
Camier expects both races to feature large leading groups and is hopeful he has the set-up on his Honda CBR1000RR to be strong in wet or dry conditions.
“Today went well, after trying many things in testing for today we went back to our base setting and the bike felt great and I was able to set a good lap time in FP2. I’m happy with my pace today and we just need to keep working and make things a fraction better for the race which I expect to be a tactical battle with many riders on similar race pace. Riding the Fireblade in the wet today for the first time was also a good experience and I felt very comfortable on the bike straight away which is important. Overall, it was a good start and I feel like I’m ready for the race regardless if its in wet or dry conditions.”
Team-mate Jake Gagne narrowly missed out on SP2 after finishing the day in eleventh spot, forcing him to go through SP1. The American rookie suffered a crash in final practice which saw him knocked out of the top ten by Alex Lowes but he remains confident of starting the season strongly.
“We started off in the rain in FP1 today and it was really good to get some wet track time around Phillip Island and I felt comfortable on the bike straight away. For the dry session in FP2 we tried something different setting wise compared to what we ran in the test and it made a big difference for me, I could push a lot more and it was good to end that session in the top ten. In FP3 I felt even better with the bike and tried to stay in the top ten but pushed a bit hard and had a small crash but it was nothing too serious, now I want to try and qualify for Superpole 2 and have a good first race.”
