JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam has labelled his MCE British Superbike race weekend at Thruxton as a ‘disaster’ and struggled with engine configuration at the Hampshire track. But his team were able to work hard and in race two the Smalley rider was in podium contention.

In race one Haslam finished in thirteenth, and in the final outing was able to improve and was in third until there were only a few laps remaining. But tyre wear meant that he lost some pace and slipped to fifth at the finishing line.

The former World Superbike star has not been at the track for nearly nine years, but he was pleased with the progress that he made from Friday’s free practice sessions, to be in with a shot of a podium in race two.

“It’s been a disaster of a weekend really. From the off we’ve all struggled with the engine configuration and it’s meant we’ve been on the back foot the whole time. I knew we would do better in the races, and full credit to the team too as they were able to get us in a much better position,” said Haslam.

“The pace car destroyed our chances in that opening race, I felt we would be capable of a top five at least but unfortunately the additional laps on the tyre just meant we couldn’t maintain that pace.

“The second race was better and I felt really comfortable sitting in second but with four laps to go the tyre just completely dropped off and we couldn’t stay there. It’s certainly frustrating, but after all the difficulties to have been challenging for the win with four laps to go in race two shows just how far we’ve come since first practice.”