Leon Haslam felt “too many mistakes” left him third in Oulton Park BSB opener

Leon Haslam was well and truly in the mix, leading to his first podium since his three second places at the BSB opening round at Oulton Park, as the paddock returned to the Cheshire track for round six.

Like many of the BSB riders, the Moto Rapido rider had been looking forward to a return to Oulton Park in more favourable weather, but revealed when speaking to British Superbikes after the race, that although the 2018 series winner had improved, so had most of those around him:

“I did feel like, especially after round one here, we had a good rhythm with the bike and coming back, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be.

It’s the quickest I’ve gone in qualifying and I was actually further down the grid than I was at round one. But, yeah, honestly I did feel quite comfortable.”

There were a few twitches for the Ducati rider in the race, but all well manged as he cemented his place in the ever evolving lead group, but pushing hard to stay in with a podium shout meant some small errors crept in, as Haslam explained in the interview:

“We had a few little issues with managing from the start managed to make some overtakes, which I felt comfortable with  - but then, the last three or four laps when Brad pulled his finger out and tried to pull away - I just made too many mistakes.

Tried to make it hard for Kyle to pass me, but you know, eventually got through and then I felt like, a bit defensive mode, rather than attack mode.

So a few little changes tomorrow and hopefully we can be in the fight again.”

On being asked if there were any major changes to the bike since the first meeting at Oulton Park, the number 91 rider explained how the rev changes on his Ducati had been having an effect:

“Being honest, the biggest change is we’ve lost 250 revs with the Ducati - the last time here we was basically on the limit of rev limiters and losing 250 revs we basically couldn’t run that gear in. So, it’s always a compromise at Oulton Park anyway, and especially losing that rev, specifically here. I’ve not really felt a difference anywhere else but here it’s been a bit of an issue.”