Overcast skies and cool temperatures greeted Saturday’s free practice and Superpole at Donington Park, Leicestershire, for the second round of the World Superbikes, a real change from Australia where a month ago the first round was held.

The problems I had with contracting glandular fever while in Australia have left me rather weak and over the course of free practice it was a case of conserving my energies to enable me to get a good grid position for both of Sunday’s races aboard my Alitalia Aprilia RSV.

With Superpole One underway my strategy was to put in a quick flying lap so that I wouldn’t have to keep circulating for the whole 14 minutes, plus it was so cold!

Initially I was holding second putting in 1min 29.146sec, but as the riders starting getting heat into their tyres I began to slip down the order and finished in 11th, just qualifying for Superpole Two.

At the end of the first lap of Superpole Two (lasting 12 minutes) I was holding fourth (1:28:857) and had to keep my eye on the time as only the top eight went through to the final qualifier.

On the final lap I lay in ninth but as I crossed the line I was seventh (1:28:703).

Having used my qualifying tyres for the previous Superpoles I had to use race tyres for the final qualifier.

My first lap put me into fifth but by the end of the final 10 minutes I was beginning to tire and ended up seventh for the race on Sunday putting put me on the second row.

The victor in Australia Carlos Checa was once again on pole with my team-mate Max Biaggi alongside me on the grid in sixth.

With still a chilly feel to the weather on Sunday in race one I managed to get from seventh up to third, settling into a rhythm that was rudely disturbed by Nori Haga (Pata Aprilia), as his bike nudged my elbow on lap five!

On lap 13 I briefly overtook Leon Haslam (BMW) slotting me into second, but he immediately regained second spot.

With nine laps remaining unfortunately the tyres on my Aprilia started to give me grip issues so it was just a question of hanging in the best I could, but a number of riders passed me.

I took the flag in a disappointed eighth, whilst Marco Melandri (Yamaha) took first place.

I got a good start in race two, slotting into third position, in front were Checa and Haslam.

On lap four I managed to overtake Haslam, but in turn I immediately got taken by Melandri.

There was a fair amount of taking and re-taking between myself and Marco but with five laps to go I had some issues with my brakes and he moved three seconds clear.

The chequered flag showed, with me in third.

I was more than pleased with that considering how I felt at the beginning of the weekend, which places me seventh overall in the championship.

Team-mate Max got black-flagged for a jump start and not coming into the pits for a ride-through.

The next round is at Assen, Holland on April 17 – one of my favourite tracks.

Race One results: 1 M. Melandri (Sterilgarda Yamaha); 2: J. Smrz (Effenbert Ducati); 3: C. Checa (Althea Ducati).

Race Two results: 1 C. Checa (Althea Ducati); 2 M. Melandri (Sterilgarda Yamaha); 3 C. Camier (Alitalia Aprilia).

o To find out more about Leon Camier visit www.leon-camier.net