Ashford’s Leon Camier was outshone in qualifying by his teammate Jules Cluzel as the eni FIM Superbike World Championship arrived in Portugal.
The rookie Frenchman will start Sunday’s two 22 lap races from eighth place in Portimao whilst Camier will have a bit of a harder race as he has to fight his way through from 13th on the grid.
It was a calculated gamble that didn’t pay off for the Kent race ace during qualifying on Saturday afternoon and he was eliminated before the final Superpole session.
He didn’t get the chance to use his qualifying tyres and he thought that he had done enough to make it through as he was in sixth place but the qualifying tyres were that much better than the compound tyre and his competition pulled out lap times in the closing minutes.
There is a bright note for Leon though and he had good raw pace throughout qualifying and the practice sessions, and he can easily make his way through the field and score some good points today in both races.
Tom Sykes is once again the man for them all to beat as he once again put his machine on pole position and is going after his fifth consecutive victory of the season.
Cluzel worked his way through the qualifying sessions and into the final Superpole session and steadily improved his times as he did so, and he has a great chance of challenging for big points after qualifying in eighth.
Giving his reaction after qualifying a slightly frustrated Camier said: “It’s really frustrating because I made a call that no-one else would go that much faster, but people like Checa, Badovini and Jules made a massive step on a qualifier.
“The difference in the times on the tyres was not a lot at Donington, but here a lot of people went a second-and-a-bit faster. We were sixth when the others put in the qualifiers and I still thought we’d be fine, but we left it too late, so I’m disappointed about what happened. The race-pace at the moment is not good enough for the front group, but I will be aiming to get to the next group back and that will be a good achievement from where we are on the grid and then we’ll have to see what happens from there.
“We made a change in Superpole, but we need to try that tomorrow in warm-up with a full tank of fuel, and if it feels right, we’ll use it. I’m hoping to get some good passes done early on and be aiming to get up to that group around fifth or sixth position and try to do the best we can.”