Both Australians produced battling rides, Steve to finish ninth in the second race and Garry to come 11th in day’s opener.

But the pair’s efforts were not rewarded in their other races as Steve was forced to retire from race one with a rear tyre pressure problem, while Garry suffered an engine failure on the penultimate lap of the afternoon contest.

Lorenzo Lanzi, standing in for Regis Laconi on the factory Ducati, clinched his first World Superbike win in race two and was leading race one before being handed a ride-through penalty for running wide at the first corner. That race, stopped two laps early because of light rain, was eventually won by Chris Vermeulen who, having finished second to Lanzi in race two, closed the championship gap on Troy Corser, who crashed while leading race two, to 60 points.

Garry, starting from 17th on the grid, battled through the field to 11th before the first race was ended two laps early due to light rain. After pulling into the pitbox after six laps, Steve rejoined the race two laps later on a new tyre and was able to set the eighth fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:41.024 before finishing in 18th.

Steve was closing in on Max Neukirchner and Norick Abe in the final stages of race two after picking off Frankie Chili. Garry enjoyed a great start to the second race and’ having been up to 11th place, was lying in 13th at the end of the lap before his retirement.

Steve said: “I am happy with the second race and we are definitely on the improvement trail. It was good to get a result on the board and it was the sort of result I thought we were capable of in the first race. I got a pretty good start and the bike was handling really well. I could catch those in front of me easily through the tight sections. I had seventh place in my sights and for half the race I could see the leaders. I think we have made further strides forward with the handling of the bike this weekend and I am already looking forward to Imola. For the first few laps of the first race I felt as though I was going to crash everywhere. I was lapping four seconds a lap slower than I had been doing in qualifying so I pulled into the box, fitted a new rear tyre and got back to the times that I had been doing all weekend.”

Garry said: “My jump off the start of the first race wasn’t too bad but everyone bunches up at the second and third turns and I got stuck behind a couple of Ducatis. Once I got past them, I then took Gimbert and Steve and then pretty much had a lonely race from then on. At half-race distance the tyre dropped off pretty badly, a cold tear causing lost traction going into and coming out of corners. It wasn’t too much fun towards the end of the race and was just a matter of staying on. I also got a good start to race two and was up with the boys but even on the first lap I felt the engine slow down and I could hear a noise for the whole race. So I was trying to bring it home when I felt it go on the second last lap. The most disappointing thing was for it to go so late in the race after we had put in all that effort.”

Race two results, Superbike World Championship round 10, Eurospeedway Lausitz, Germany: 1 Lanzi; 2 Vermeulen 0.840; 3 Haga 4.598; 4 Kagayama 5.291; 5 Muggerdige 16.236; 6 Pitt 18.362; 7 Neukirchner 26.360; 8 Abe 26.453; 9 Martin 27.076; 10 Chili 37.303; 11 Toseland 40.997; 12 Bussei 44.309; 13 Corser 44.485; 14 Gimbert 48.459; 15 Bostrom 53.264

Race one results: 1 Vermeulen; 2 Haga 0.269; 3 Corser 2.299; 4 Toseland 7.058; 5 Kagayama 12.708; 6 Pitt 14.053; 7 Neukirchner 16.616; 8 Lanzi 19.023; 9 Abe 24.651; 10 Bostrom 34.354; 11 McCoy (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 44.382; 12 Bussei 45.020; 13 Cardoso 51.811; 14 Brignola 51.943; 15 Cruciani 1:04.111; 18 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2 laps