CRAIG Jones toiled in soaring temperatures in the sixth round of the Superbike World Championship.

The Foggy PETRONAS racing rider picked in up two 21st place finishes in Misano, Italy, to take encouragement from a weekend that started dismally.

Jones said: "The aim this weekend was to finish both races and then make headway at the next few circuits, where I am a bit stronger.

"So in that respect I can be content."

He started well in the first race of the weekend at the fast Adriatic circuit, but quickly ran in to problems.

"As soon as the tyres lost a bit of grip my lap times dropped," he said.

Further problems with the gear position sensor did not help, as the bike ran on into the corners.

It was a similar story in race two, as this time Jones' bike over-heated, causing him to lose vital power.

He said: "I still managed to close the gap on the leaders, which is encouraging."

Team boss Carl Fogarty tried everything to squeeze extra seconds from his young protg, swapping Jones' settings to those of his team mate Steve Martin at one point.

It made a difference.

Jones said: "Although we have different riding styles, I soon started to get a feel for it.

"I could feel my confidence coming back again."

But in temperatures of 50 degrees he struggled in Friday's practice session, a far cry from the positive test times he posted on his first visit to Misano in April.

"I thought we had moved on leaps and bounds since we were late here, so I don't know what went wrong," he said.

Troy Bayliss won the first race but crashed out in race two, when Andrew Pitt secured his first Superbike World Championship win.