The penultimate round of this year’s World Superbike Championship was held at the French circuit of Magny Cours.

Series leader Carlos Checa arrived in France determined to clinch the title while I had my eye on the rostrum again after my second podium of the season in Italy and was keen to try and keep the pace going aboard my Alitalia-sponsored Aprilia RSV1000.

I put in plenty of laps in open practice to familiarise myself with the track and get the bike set up and it paid off with one of my best superpoles as I got through to the final eight.

When the flag dropped, I finally grabbed fourth position – my second-best result so far in qualifying.

Castrol Honda’s Jonathan Rae got pole with Eugene Laverty (Yamaha) second and Checa (Ducati) third.

Incidentally, my team-mate and the reigning champion, Max Biaggi, didn’t make the race as his injury was still proving too painful to put a boot on over his broken toe.

Race one of 23 laps got under way and Laverty took the lead followed by myself and Checa.

On the second lap I nearly got hit by Carlos when he left his braking really late and midway through that lap, Checa squeezed past me into second.

Chasing hard were Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati) and Leon Haslam (BMW), so it was imperative to get into a steady rhythm. Checa, meanwhile, passed Laverty to take the lead with 14 laps to go.

With 11 laps remaining, Haslam passed me at the Adelaide hairpin, putting me down to fourth and two laps later, Marco Melandri (Yamaha) got by. Melandri got through to second and I made a move on Laverty to take fourth. As the flag fell, the order was champion-elect Checa, Melandri, Haslam and myself.

The start of race two saw me slot into third position with Rae and Laverty in front but Checa quickly passed me.

With three laps gone, Rae was beginning to pull away from Laverty and I was having a battle with Nori Haga (Aprilia) and Checa, who had slipped back. After six laps, Laverty got past Rea to take the lead and once again Checa got past me at the hairpin.

With 10 laps gone and the track temperature rising, my rear tyre began to lose grip and I couldn’t maintain the lap times to stay with the leaders. On the same lap, Rae was hit by electrical gremlins and had to pull over. Checa got to the front, slipping past Laverty and he immediately started to pull away.

Six laps from the flag, Haslam squeezed by and on the final lap, Guintoli just beat me to the flag, so I ended up sixth.

The final race of the season is at Portimao in Portugal on Sunday, October 16.

Race results: Race 1: 1 C Checa, 2 M Melandri, 3 L Haslam; Race 2: 1 Checa, 2 Melandri, 3 E Laverty.

Overall standings: 1 Checa 467, 2 Melandri 360, 3 E Laverty 283; 6 L Camier (194).

For more information, see www.leon-camier.net