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Donington WorldSBK: 'Still a lot to learn’ for Haslam

Leon Haslam ended the opening day of WorldSBK practice at Donington Park in third place and only four-tenths of a second slower than world champion Jonathan Rea but says that after only two hours’ riding time on a new bike, he still has a lot to learn.

Haslam is wildcarding for the Puccetti Kawasaki team and is returning to a race bike with full electronics and different tyres to the Kawasaki he campaigns in the MCE British Superbike series. The Smalley rider has found a good laptime on used tyres but says he needs to be more consistent and up his game on a fresh tyre ahead of qualifying.

“We’ve had two one-hour sessions to learn to ride the bike in terms of electronics and made a lot of changes. We made a really good chassis change at the end of that session and went half a second quicker than I have been doing all day on a 13-lap old tyre,” said Haslam, speaking at the track.

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“That on an old tyre is a massive step. I have still got to improve in the last sector but that’s 100 per cent down to me. I have got to trust the electronics and twist the throttle. I’m still riding a little too BSB which is interfering with the electronics, so I just have to pin it. There is about 0.4s to find compared to Chaz but I’m pretty happy with the rest of the lap.

“It’s a combination of everything. It’s a 23-lap race and the top guys are in the low 1’28s. I have just got into the low 1’28s. It was on a used tyre but I need to be a little more consistent - I need to be a bit faster on a new tyre as well.

“We’re still learning and every session we are understanding more where it needs to be. It’s not far away but in terms of battling with them, we have a long way to go.”

In 2012, Haslam was on the end of a serious nerfing by Marco Melandri at Goddards and this is what will happen if the two are at the same place on the last lap this weekend…

“I’m coming past Marco whether the rubber is the right way up or not!”

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