Motorland Aragon circuit, where Leon Haslam had at least some track time on his 2019 KRT Kawasaki in winter testing, should have been, on paper, an opportunity.

But for the first two days of WorldSBK action he did nothing but fight and lose against his bike’s set-up and had to also content with operational stitches on his ankle which chose to split open.

“Honestly, Friday and Saturday were a disaster for me. I just struggled from the very first practice session and in race one on Saturday we also struggled a lot," Haslam told bikesportnews.com.

"The team made a really good step overnight and what we have found in that area is going to be a step for me for the whole year.

It is something that I have struggled with ever since I got on this bike. So to, kind of, scrap Friday and Saturday and make that jump to battling on Sunday at this circuit - which again is not ideal for me - I feel really confident with what I felt with the bike.”

He harried the podium riders all the way and just lost third place to Chaz Davies by fractions on Sunday afternoon.

In specific terms Haslam has had to work overtime when entering corners until now, and he spent a lot of the early part of the Motorland weekend out of shape on the brakes, with the back wheel lifting and hopping.

“Corner entry has been my main issue, coming rom the BSB bike which has pretty much no electronics, no dynamic electronics, no nothing, this one is much more sophisticated, I would say,” said Haslam.

It does a lot of things that are out of my control. I have really struggled at this track with the nature of the problem.

"We changed that setting, and overnight we found one second per lap. I think Aragon is the worst track for this kind of problem, but it will help everywhere.

"In some way this was a disastrous weekend but we came out of it smiling.”

Next up for Haslam is Assen, a happy hunting ground at times and one of the few tracks he has had recent Kawasaki experience at, even if only on his old BSB bike.

“I have not been here for a few years but I have been at Assen once a year,” said Haslam. “Assen is good and Imola I have raced there in a wild card recently so hopefully in these next couple of rounds we can get back to where we need to be. I remember with the Suzuki, BWW and Aprila, some pretty good battles in WorldSBK at Assen.”