A return to home ground, almost literally for local boy Leon Haslam, saw him fight with some riders who would eventually challenge for the podium places.

That prospect for any official rider seems a long way off, but Haslam saw it is progress for sure.

“It was nice to get a result, and not just a result but also to be in that battle that would have got us the podium,” said Haslam. “So, I feel we made some progress. We have got some areas that we still definitely need to improve on, but they’re very clear. So this will actually be good for the boys. I didn’t make it easy for them.

"I crashed in Superpole after one lap. So the boys worked really hard to get the bike ready. We made a good start. We were fast for 75% of the lap. We just need to improve on the last sector.” ]

Maybe, after trading lap times in FP3 with Jonathan Rea, Haslam would have preferred it to be fully wet? “Honestly, it’s the first proper time we’ve had in the rain so I was surprised how easy the lap times came,” said Haslam.

“Again, we’ve still got some areas that we need to improve in the wet. But in the wet is a big leveller and you always have that confidence to try and win. In the dry we know our limitations. With today’s limitations, we were close to that podium.”

Happily, in way at least, Haslam knows exactly what he needs from his bike for Donington at least. “We’re struggling on the start/stop sections, so we might need to do a bit of a trade on the faster stuff now. We have improved a lot. We need to get the last sector. The last three accelerations is where I’m losing my time.”