Despite being the man to beat going into race day,
Troy Corser was forced to settle for a single podium finish from the opening rounds of the World Superbike Championship in Qatar.
The Yamaha rider had stormed to pole position by over sixth-tenths of a second in the Superpole session which left him confident of fighting for victory in the two 18-lap races.
The opening race saw Corser embroiled in a titanic battle for the honour of taking the opening race win of the season before he was forced to settle for third place behind countryman
Troy Bayliss and former
MotoGP star Max Biaggi.
In the second race, he also fought at the front before the same tyre issues that hit team-mate
Noriyuki Haga forced him to slip down the order to finish in seventh. As a result, Corser lies fifth in the standings after the opening rounds of the year.
"It was another frustrating day for me today because I really believed, after our recent tests here and yesterday's qualifying and Superpole, two podiums would be possible," he said. "In race one I used the hardest front and rear tyre available - I was the only one with this choice - and the tyres were pretty consistent, but they didn't allow me to go any faster! They were OK early on, then dropped and then dropped again and that was enough to prevent me from challenging the front two.
"I talked with the tyre people after race one and changed for race two. These ones only lasted ten laps and after that I had many, many slides and nearly crashed a couple of times. I just had to keep going as best I could, and that's what I did. In a way, I suppose I was lucky because I managed to finish the race.
"I'm really disappointed after getting Superpole yesterday, and it was obvious we had the speed to be competitive. That's about all I can say."
