With my team-mate Max Biaggi still out because of an injured heel, it was up to me to fly the works Aprilia flag for the weekend at Imola in Italy for the 11th round of World Superbikes.

I missed this round last year through injury so I had to take the first day of open testing as a learning curve.

In perfect weather conditions, my Alitalia-sponsored Aprilia RSV1000 was struggling a bit with rear-end chatter for the Superpole rounds and I had to use a qualifying tyre early in the session to get a reasonable place on the grid for the races. I couldn’t improve on my lap times significantly and ended up 10th for the first race on Sunday.

Series leader Carlos Checa got his sixth pole of the season aboard the Althea Ducati, with Jonathan Rae (Castrol Honda) and Nori Haga (Patta Aprilia) second and third.

By the second corner of the 21-lap first race, I had managed to pass four riders putting me up to fifth but disaster struck as we came into the final bend on the first lap. I had to sit my bike up to avoid hitting the rider in front of me, which resulted in me going straight on at the hairpin and down into the pit lane. By the time I had rejoined I was last!

Meanwhile, up front, Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) was having a battle with Jonathan Rae in second, while patiently waiting in third was Eugene Laverty (Yamaha). Curiously, in the early laps, top man Checa was struggling in fourth, having topped the times all weekend. It was probably an attack of nerves as he was close to winning the championship if he won the race.

With four laps gone, Rae passed Sykes and started to pull out a lead aboard his Honda. Sykes was being hassled by Japan’s Nori Haga aboard his privateer Pata Aprilia and with seven laps gone he slipped past Sykes to take second spot. Meanwhile, I’d managed to get up to 17th and was trying hard to close the gap on the following group of riders.

By half race distance, Haga was closing in on Rae and Checa appeared to have settled down and was also clawing back the distance between him and Sykes.

As the flag dropped Rae managed to keep Haga behind him to take the victory and Checa took the final podium spot. I came in 15th.

Race two was an altogether better start for me and by the first corner I was up to fifth having passed five riders, with Rae and Laverty battling for the lead. With three laps gone Rae was beginning to pull out a substantial lead and one lap later I got past Laverty and slotted into second, with Rae two seconds further up the road.

Two laps later Haga squeezed past me, so I had to regain my rhythm and maintain lap times.

With seven laps gone Checa passed me, so I was back to fourth. In the meantime leader Rae had opened up a three-second gap, but Haga was chasing him down.

Unfortunately mechanical gremlins struck Rae with just five laps remaining and he had to pull out allowing Checa, who had passed Haga, to take the lead and this gifted me with third. With the flag dropping Checa took the laurels with Haga second and me in third – a podium place!