BSB: Haslam battles injury and speed deficit at Snetterton

Coming back after his heavy crash at Knockhill, this weekend was never going to be easy for Leon Haslam, but the JG Speedfit Kawasaki feels he wasn’t just hindered by his injuries as he finished both races off the podium for the first time this year.

After qualifying strongly on the second row, Haslam narrowly missed out on the rostrum in the opening race but things wouldn’t go so well in the second outing as he struggled for pace from the off and eventually crossed the line eighth.  

Having already missed the Snetterton test with a technical issue, further problems saw Haslam miss more track time in the free practice sessions and a speed deficit down the Norfolk circuit’s back straight particularly hindered the former WSB runner-up in the second race.

“We had a bit of a problem with speed this weekend,” Haslam said. “We struggled a little on the straights and it’s something we need to look into. We knew we were down on speed to a few of our competitors, especially Ducati, BMW and Honda but now the Yamaha seem to have stepped up with top speed too and this track really highlights that. 

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“That being said, it’s been a combination of everything. I’m still not 100% with the injury and the bike hasn’t been perfect either. I was pretty happy with the opening race as I could fight at the start and nearly ended up on the podium and I felt that would be our potential this weekend. Race two was much worse and we dropped back quite a bit.”

While it was undoubtedly a tough weekend for Haslam, his results weren’t too far off the fourth and fifth he achieved here last year. 

“Snetterton was one of our worst rounds last year so we’ll take two solid points finishes today. It’s a shame not to have added more podium credits, but we were strong at Brands GP last year so I’ll aim to come back fighting.” 

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