Haslam: Pushing too hard, making too many mistakes

Leon Haslam maintained his perfect World Superbike Championship scoring record so far in 2019 with a trio of top ten finishes at Jerez, results that Briton admits he is ‘not too happy about’.

A testing weekend for the reigning British Superbike Champion, Haslam – much like Kawasaki Racing team-mate Jonathan Rea – struggled to find the right setting on the ZX-10RR and spent all three races mired in the midfield.

Though experience allowed him to wrestle the bike home for a 9-6-5 set of results, Haslam admits the ongoing issues, together with his mistakes whilst attempting to make up ground, are reflected in the distant finishes.  

“Every session we were struggling with the front traction and we ran a bit more angle and corner speed compared to some of the other Kawasaki riders and I think that has been hindering me, especially as the temperatures have risen.

“I have tried to adapt my style and played around a little bit with set-up. I felt in that final race of the weekend I had good pace and could have challenged for that third place but I got stuck behind Tom for too many laps.

“Then when I got past him I was pushing too hard, like I was before, making too many mistakes. I was just lining Rinaldi up when the red flags came out. Another fifth place, so obviously I am not too happy about the result, but we have managed a lot of problems here this weekend.”

Haslam is one of only two riders – the other being Rea – to have scored points in each race this season.