Leon Camier ended his time with Aprilia by putting in two determined rides at the final round of the World Superbike Championship on Sunday.

The Ashford rider, pictured, who will not be staying with the Italian team in 2012, finished the season seventh in the standings after 12th and sixth places in Portugal.

Starting from the third row of the grid at Portimao, he made a good start to race one but after battling with Leon Haslam and team-mate Max Biaggi, he ran off track to avoid another rider and dropped back to last place.

He eventually battled back to finish 12th and found himself running sixth in race two, albeit some distance from the front five riders. Camier eventually crossed the line at the back of the leading group, ending a mixed weekend when he was consistently among the fastest runners.

“The two races were odd for me because for long sections of the race I was among the fastest on the track,” he said. “Unfortunately, starting from behind it’s always difficult to recover positions, especially in race one because in the first stages I lost time going wide.

“I would have liked to end this experience on the podium. Unfortunately we weren’t able to demonstrate our true potential this year.”