Australian Mark Aitchison missed out on a pair of point-scoring positions at the Misano round of the Superbike World Championship, his hopes dashed by bad luck on race day.

Aitchison was enjoying his best form yet with Pedercini Kawasaki during the races, battling well within the top 10 before suffering a mechanical problem in the opening leg and then crashing out of race two.

“Today has been a little bit of a frustrating day in Misano,” Atcho said. “I started my first race very well and made some passes in the first few laps and I was feeling comfortable on the bike.

“With around three laps remaining whilst I was in eleventh position my bike completely shut down and I was forced to retire out of the race. We found afterwards that we had a problem with one of the cables connected to our electronic system.

“In race two once again I got a good start and I passed a few riders in the first laps. I was feeling good on the bike and I wanted to push ahead to the group in front of me, but unfortunately I lost grip on the front tyre in the slow corner at the beginning of the lap and I had a small crash.

“I was hoping to rejoin but the bike was turned off and I was unable to restart. I’m sorry for this small mistake to my team as they have done a great job this weekend again.”

Aitchison will now turn his attention to the Aragon round of the series in Spain this weekend.