Knockhill BSB: Haslam ‘happy’ with qualifying display

JG Speedfit’s Leon Haslam was happy enough with his day’s work at Knockhill as he finished the MCE British Superbike qualifying session in third place.

The Kawasaki rider pushed hard late on in Scotland but he said the nature of the brief circuit meant that many riders were close together, literally.

“Honestly, every lap we were knocking point fives and points six off but we were always in the top three but everyone was doing the same,” said Haslam. “They were all building up to the big lap and knocking big chunks off.”

A difficult session saw the heavens open just before Q2 was about to get underway, resulting in a suspension of the action and with Haslam having set the top time in Q3 it looked as though it could have proved problematic.

As it ended up, the Derbyshire rider adapted well to the conditions, and he said that getting some time in the wet was good in case of similar tomorrow.

“That was the first time we’ve rode in the wet here, this morning’s session was pretty much half dry and we ended up on intermediate tyres,” he said.

“To go into a twelve minute and then eight minute shootout with no wet set-up and I haven’t been here in a few years I was pretty happy.”

Following his satisfying Saturday, the former World Superbike race winner feels that tomorrow, if dry, could present him with a good opportunity to extend his championship lead.

“I feel quite good with the dry conditions, there’s a few things I’d like to change if it’s wet tomorrow but I’m happy we got that wet session as it’s given us some good information,” affirmed the 33-year-old.

“Everyone says tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be better, but every day changes so I’m not the one staring at their phone looking at this thing. I just get up in the morning and see which leathers I’m going to put on.”