Leon Haslam third in race one after taking opening Oulton Park laps “too easy” with Ray “already gone”

Leon Haslam got his 2025 British Superbike campaign off to a strong start with a podium visit after finishing third at the first race of the opening round at Oulton Park.

Now a veteran of the BSB paddock, Haslam has not been a Ducati rider in any championship since the 2007 season and makes the move after running his own BMW outfit in 2024.

• 2025 British Superbikes: Oulton Park - Race Results (1)
• 2025 British Superbikes: Oulton Park- Qualifying Results

Able to concentrate on his riding, the #91 has looked invigorated, and after a strong showing in testing had finished the opening day top heading to qualifying with the best time before Ray put in a record breaking Sunday in qualifying and Race 1 to come out on top.

While Ray was keen to push hard while confident on the new tyres, Haslam had a different tyre management plan for the race, which in retrospect prevented Haslam from giving chase after Ray’s escape.

Haslam explained after the race “Obviously I’ve got to be happy with a podium, I had it in the back of my mid just to finish the race, you know gather some information,

Pace-wise Brad was really, really fast, I probably just took it a little bit too easy the first few laps and he’d already gone after four or five laps.”

That gap took Haslam back into the battle for the rest of the rostrum slots, first working his way past reigning champion Kyle Ryde, who faded as he got to grips with his OMG bike, only for a fired up Glenn Irwin to arrive and fight his way into second:

“After that me and Glenn had a good battle, had a good battle with Kent and also with Kyle, so all in all it was good - I think we learned a lot from that race and we brought it home- which was the objective”.

Haslam seemed positive he can use the Ducati straight line speed to his advantage to prevent another runaway win on Bank Holiday Monday with two races remaining, starting with the sprint adding “the Yamahas are real competitive in the tighter, twistier chicane stuff, I feel real competitive on the faster flowy stuff, so it’s a bit of a mixture, you know - some places I feel stronger and other - we need to make improvements”.

Haslam added that he needed to balance riding on a full tank with learning the Ducati, but was overall happy with his opening performance at Oulton Park:

“A few things I don want to try and improve on, especially the early laps - it was the first time I’d raced with a full tank of fuel so getting used to that and how the bike handles, but all in all I think we learned a lot and we brought home a podium”.