FIXI Crescent Suzuki racer Leon Camier continued with the form he showed at the last eni FIM Superbike World Championship round by consistently battling in the top-five during today's two sessions in Portugal.

The British rider finished on the podium at Nurburgring two weeks ago and carried that form with him to the 5,492m Portimao circuit. In this morning's free practice, Camier was quickly on the pace and finished the session in third place, only 0.117 seconds from top-spot. He continued with his strong performance in the opening qualification session and posted a best time of 1'43.949 during his 16-laps, which was 0.753 seconds from Marco Melandri's provisional pole time and good enough to give Camier sixth overall.

John Hopkins spent most of the two sessions learning the complicated layout, with all its twists, turns and changes of elevation; he had to be at the height of his concentration as this was his first visit to the Portuguese circuit. Hopkins finished the day just outside the provisional cut-off point for Saturday's Superpole, but with a second qualifying session scheduled for tomorrow morning, he is sure he can secure a place for him and his Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R in the top 16.

Current championship leader Max Biaggi posted the seventh quickest time with the second of the trio of riders challenging for the title, Tom Sykes, in third, both of them playing catch-up to Melandri. A very busy day for World Superbike also saw the organisers make two separate announcements that the championship will head to Jerez in Spain and Laguna Seca in America, during 2013 in a shake-up to next season's calendar.

FIXI Crescent Suzuki and the rest of the WSB field will have a final qualifying session tomorrow to sort out who qualifies for Superpole to battle for the best grid positions in Sunday's two races, the first of which gets underway at 12.00hrs local time (12.00hrs BST).

Leon Camier:

"Considering that I never felt completely comfortable on the bike, sixth today is pretty good. The chassis is good, but we can improve it and the same applies to the electronics. The funny thing today is that, in the morning I was quicker in some areas and in the afternoon I was faster in some others. We need to get the balance right, but I'm confident that there's a lot more to come from my FIXI Crescent Suzuki."

John Hopkins:

"There's a lot to learn at this track - especially all the blind corners - so today was all about figuring it out. I tried to put in the laps and not worry too much about changing many settings, but my FIXI Crescent Suzuki's set-up is not far off, so we'll continue to improve it and the whole package tomorrow. I really like this track - it reminds me a bit of a quote: motocross circuit - and I'm looking forward to tomorrow and further improvements for sure."

Jack Valentine - Team Manager:

"I think it's been a good day for us generally. Leon was on it straight away in free practice and set the third fastest time of the session. He and the team tried out quite a few things, so there's definitely room for improvement.

"It is John's first time here and he's been learning the track today, so 16th in the first session is pretty remarkable. Both riders improved their lap times in qualifying and I know that there's a lot more to come from both of them. It's early stages, but the FIXI Crescent Suzuki has been going well and I'm positive that both riders will get faster. Leon improved his time from the morning by half-of-a-second and John by three-tenths, so we know we are going in the right direction. As usual, our first goal is to get both riders into Superpole and then see what happens. I feel sure that Leon will manage it and so will John, as he has already closed in on riders with a lot more track experience."

Portimao - FIM Superbike World Championship - Qualifying 1:

1. Marco Melandri (BMW) 1'43.196:
2. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) 1'43.580:
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 1'43.731:
4. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1'43.886:
5. Leon Haslam (BMW) 1'43.921.
6. Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 1'43.949.
19. John Hopkins (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 1'45.655.

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