PAUL VEAZEY battled to 15th place in the fifth round of the CEV Buckler Spanish Supersport Championship at the Montmelo circuit near Barcelona at the weekend.

The Joe Darcey Honda Team rider was locked in a thrilling six-way fight throughout the race and narrowly missed out on taking his best finish of the year after a mistake on the final lap of 16-lap affair.

"What a race. I was up to tenth place at one point then back to 16th then up to 11th so it was a busy afternoon," said Veazey. "Then, on the last lap, I decided to really make a big charge but ended up running wide and lost a lot of ground."

The Middlesbrough rider added: "I'm reasonably happy just to finish the race after crashing out of the last two rounds, but I really wanted to get into the top 10."

Veazey - who qualified in 14th place - now looks forward to the final two rounds of the Spanish Championship at Jerez and Valencia and believes the Montmelo result can help make the next step and finish the 2009 campaign in style.

"It was really important for me to have a good, hard race and that's what I got," said Veazey. "The Joe Darcey Team have a great crew of technicians and they're 100 per cent behind me in trying to achieve the next level."

Sunday's race was won by Spanish Honda rider Jordi Torres with Britain's Kev Coghlan second and Yamaha-mounted Ivan Moreno of Spain third.