Injury holds Haslam back from podium charge
Leon Haslam feels his podium charge at Laguna Seca was restrained by his heavy race one fall.
Leon Haslam feels he could have fought for the podium at Laguna Seca but his heavy opening race fall restrained him from extracting his own full potential for Kawasaki.
The British rider suffered an off during the opening race at the US round coming down The Corkscrew and sustained a hand contusion and knock to the head.
After being declared fit to race by the World Superbike medical staff for the Superpole sprint race and race two, Haslam fought to fifth place and sixth place respectively but his injuries restrained his charge having felt his Kawasaki ZX-10RR package had the pace to reach the podium.
“I felt we had good pace and we were there for that podium pace,” Halsam said. “I could catch Tom Sykes and Alex quite comfortably but in the end I just struggled with myself, not the bike.
“Especially braking into left hand corners - and there are a fair few of them here. I was disappointed with the crash yesterday and I have suffered all day with my wrist and the pain transferred into my shoulder because I was not riding as freely.
“I can’t be too unhappy as it was my mistake when we crashed in Race 1, but we have had a fifth and sixth today and were not far off the podium pace.”
Haslam remains fifth in the World Superbike riders’ standings going into the summer break and holds an 11-point advantage over Puccetti Kawasaki’s Toprak Razgatlioglu in sixth place.
