Leon Haslam grabbed third place in his first ever Suzuka Eight-Hours Superpole, finishing just behind Yoshimura Suzuki’s Takuya Tsuda after making a couple of small errors on his time-attack lap but says he is confident with the pace they have shown on used tyres.

Haslam set a 2’06.469 for the works Kawasaki team, going fastest in sector one, and believes Team Green is in good shape going into tomorrow’s iconic race.

“I was quite happy. It’s the first time I have done the one-lap attack at Suzuka. Honestly, it was pretty good, I made a small mistake at Dunlop curve and the first chicane but we were very close to the fastest time,” said Haslam, speaking at the track.

“We have done a lot of work together over the weekend on used tyres and I feel really good about that. So I’m really confident, I have two fast team-mates, the bike is working well and I am looking forward to tomorrow.”