Leon Haslam was in a philosophical mood despite seeing his hopes of a podium finish at World Superbike level dashed when he was caught up in a collision with
Roberto Rolfo.
One of the few riders not to struggle with the conditions in the first race, Haslam was up to a relitively comfortable third place on aggregate when the red flag was first brandished.
However, when he became embroiled in a fight on the road with Tom Sykes and Rolfo, Haslam had nowhere to go as the Honda Althea rider surged down the inside of Sykes at the chicane and ran wide.
When Rolfo eventually low-sided off the circuit, an almost stationary Haslam barelled into Rolfo and came off his HM Plant Honda. Signalling his frustration to Rolfo as he picked himself up, Haslam got going again and went on his way to finish eighth.
Still, while he could not hide his disappointment at the outcome, he accepted that Rolfo was being merely over-ambitous.
“To say I was a little upset is an understatement, but it is one of those things,” he told
Crash.net Radio. “We got back on to finish eighth; it is just a shame because we could have definitely finished third.
“He hasn't come to apologise yet. It was certainly an ambitious move but when you are on he receiving end, you are never too happy about it. I'm sure he had it all planned out in his mind up until the final bit… You get sucked into stuff like that though and it happens, but it sucks when we should have been on the podium.”
Indeed, while Rolfo has apologised to the Honda Althea team after crashing out of what would have been a very valuable fourth place finish, he made no mention of Haslam in his press statement.
”I am really disappointed with today's results of course. It was an incredible race. Starting from the last rows always makes life difficult, but after the first few opening laps the bike felt great and I was able to make some fast laps quite quickly and in few laps I reached the fifth place.
