Kawasaki's Leon Haslam is hoping experience of riding a ZX-10RR at Imola in 2018 should help him to adapt faster to the track at this weekend's WorldSBK round.

The reigning BSB champ raced for the Puccetti squad last year and brought home a fifth-placed finish and he is hoping to improve on that at a track where he lost the chance to be crowned world champion some nine years ago.

“Imola is going to be a good race because after Assen, it was a disappointment. I felt we had good pace for the podium there but with the front tyre issues we had, we dropped back," said Haslam.

"To finish where we finished off the podium was not a nice way to go into a long break. We are heading into Imola now and I actually raced there on a Puccetti bike last year with the ELF colours that my dad, Ron, used to run.

The pace was OK for a top five although we had some issues in the races. I am quite confident that the bike will work well at Imola and I can probably adapt a little bit faster, having ridden the circuit last year.

"It is a circuit of mixed memories for me. I lost the championship chance in 2010 to Max Biaggi there but I also had some quite good battles with Carlos Checa.

"I have some up and down memories but I will have to wait and see where the other competition is at. But from my side I am really looking forward to it.”