Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam ‘struggled’ through both World Superbike races at Aragon this afternoon, and encountered issues with throttle opening and engine braking.

But the Smalley lad took two top ten placings today, finishing race one in ninth place and coming home eighth in the second 17-lapper. Now he wants to put this weekend behind him and is already looking ahead to Assen.

“We definitely started here on the back foot and lost a lot of the first session on Friday. From that point we worked really well and I was feeling confident. Just before Superpole yesterday I posted the fourth fastest time and knocked time off in every session, but then I had the crash in Superpole, which wasn’t so good,” said Haslam.

“I struggle in both races though – battling with throttle opening and engine braking. We had a couple of good top ten finishes but, in FP4 yesterday, I really felt I could be challenging for top five today. I’m glad this one is out of the way and we can start to focus on Assen.

“We’ve made big leaps with the bike in recent testing and, in my opinion, the results don’t show that and we struggled. But Jonathan had a fantastic first race and he was up there in race two. We’re coming across a few more problems at the moment but we know we’ll get on top of it.”