Snetterton British Superbikes: Leon Camier wins enthralling first race in battle of the Ducatis

Leon Camier has taken the first race victory of the day, his first of the season and the first of his BSB career at Snetterton in an enthralling battle with his team-mate Shane Byrne.

Leon Haslam got a flying start to go into the lead ahead of Leon Camier and Tom Sykes.

On lap four Airwaves Ducati’s Leon Camier dived underneath Haslam to take the lead and by lap eight Cal Cructhlow was starting to recover form his bad start as he’d moved up two places to fifth.

On lap 13 Hawk Kawasaki’s Scott Smart was forced to retire with smoke pouring out of his ZX10-R motorcycle while Guy Martin was also out of the race having retired to the pits.

Lap 15 saw Shane Byrne pass Tom Sykes to take third and it was then his team-mate Leon Camier, now in second, who was next on his shopping list as the three lead riders began to create a small gap from Rizla Suzuki’s Sykes.

Lap 18 and Haslam was under pressure from the Airwaves Ducati boys as Camier retook the lead. Byrne got the place and a shocked Haslam found himself back in fifth.

And so the final laps were to sere a battle commence between the Airwaves Ducati team-mates with Leon Camier just taking victory from Byrne and his first of the season by 0.092secs.

Rizla Suzuki’s Tom Sykes rounded off the podium with third.

Gary Mason was the British superbike Cup winner, finishing 14th overall.

In the championship Shane Byrne has extended his lead over Cal Crutchlow to 75 points while Camier has moved in to third.

After the race winner Leon Camier said: “It’s unbelievable I looked at my pit board and it said 6.5 and I thought that was how far ahead I was so I backed off and then Leon 9Haslam) came by so I had to get back on it again.

“We’ve been working hard on the set up and I’ve needed to get used to the Ducati so this is great.”

Snetterton British Superbikes race one top ten results:

1 Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati
2 Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati
3 Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki
4 Cal Crutchlow HM Plant Honda
5 Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda
6 Michael Laverty Relentless Suzuki
7 James Ellison Hydrex Bike Animal Honda
8 Karl Harris AIM Yamaha
9 Michael Rutter NW200 Ducati
10 Simon Andrews Jentin Yamaha