Portimao WSBK - A 'tough weekend' for Haslam

Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam is continuing to struggle with his injured leg but it was the problems caused by compensating for the crocked limb which caused problems for the Derbyshire man this weekend at Portimao's World Superbike meeting.

The Brit can take away some positives from the weekend. In race one he started from fourteenth place on the grid, and had battled up to tenth before pulling into the pits in discomfort, unable to ride his Honda CBR1000RR in the way he wanted. The 30-year-old opted to withdraw from race two to concentrate on improving his fitness for the next round at Imola in Italy in three weeks.

“A tough weekend, really, when I’ve been struggling with power in the leg. The knee bend was pretty good, but I just struggled in race one with fatigue in the rest of my body. I couldn’t use my leg properly, so the manhandling of the bike that’s needed round here was done pretty much using my upper body,” said Haslam.

“You don’t realise how much you use your legs on the bike until you can’t use one of them. It’s a little frustrating, but I got eight or nine laps in before I was completely done, and I managed to pass a few people, like Leon Camier, who finished fourth. We’ve made progress from Donington and we have another three weeks until Imola.

“We’ve also been keeping up to speed on the electronics, which will be useful in the races to come. We haven’t made many chassis changes because a lot of the problems are from me not being able to push through the pegs. I just need to get a bit more strength back in the leg”

By WSBK Desk

Image by Ian Ward