My first visit to the circuit at Kyalami, near Johannesburg, South Africa , last weekend reminded me of some of the circuits in the UK BSB series in that it was fairly bumpy and undulating.

On a dry circuit, the works Alitalia Aprilia RSV4 motor was behaving superbly and I managed to get into the final eight of qualifying – my best result to date. The final shoot-out got me onto the second row in eighth place with team-mate Max Biaggi alongside me in seventh. Cal Crutchlow (Sterilgarda Yamaha) got pole position.

The plan was to try and conserve the tyres for later in the race. At the start of the first race, Michel Fabrizio (Xerox Ducati) tore into the lead hotly followed by James Toseland (Sterilgarda Yamaha), Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati) and Leon Haslam (Alstare Suzuki) and myself in fifth spot.

I was constantly aware of team-mate Biaggi on my tail and on lap nine he passed me.

With 10 laps to go, Crutchlow was beginning to close in on me and I was trying to pass Toseland. A couple of times I managed to get past but couldn’t keep the pass and James re-took me. With four laps to go, Cal momentarily got past me but I re-took him immediately.

With two laps to go, I got past James but from nowhere, Jonathan Rea (Hanspree Honda) took both me and James. He was riding brilliantly and took the flag one position in front of my sixth position. Fabrizio won and my team-mate Biaggi got fourth.

With the temperatures rising race two was going to be about keeping up with the front runners but trying to conserve tyres. I got a good start from the line, but got punted wide in the first turn leaving me in seventh.

Up front Biaggi was battling hard in third spot with Haslam and Rea. Unfortunately as the race progressed, the Pirelli tyres on my Aprilia were giving me concern with the bike not behaving as it had in race one and a steady lack of grip saw me drop down the field; by lap seven I’d dropped to 10th and by lap 10 another three riders passed me. I battled on for another eight laps but pulled in on lap 18. Max had a great battle with Haslam (eventual winner) and Rea (second). His third place in the race puts him in second overall in the championship, while I’m ninth.

Race results: Race 1 M. Fabrizio (Xerox Ducati), 2 C. Checa (Althea Ducati), 3 J. Toseland (Sterilgarda Yamaha). Race 2: 1 R. Haslam (Alstare Suzuki), 2 J. Rea (Hanspree Honda), 3 M. Biaggi (Alitalia Aprilia).

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