Britain’s Leon Haslam believes he is in with a good a chance as anyone of claiming the 2015 World Superbike Crown after an impressive first outing on the ‘stable and consistent’ Red Devils Aprilia at Jerez.

The Derby man said he grew in confidence with every lap at the Spanish circuit and finished in the top five overall with a 1’40.865 but added that much will depend on the final engine specification as dicated by the 2015 technical regulations.

“The electronics are very different, so riding style is quite different. It remains to be seen on the power and where we are in respect of the new rules, how much slower it is going to be but first impressions are that I’m over the moon with it at the minute. The team are well on top of the whole electronics thing which has been a disaster over the last few years so that was a big relief,” said Haslam, speaking to bikesportnews.com

“The chassis itself has its pros and cons compared to other bikes I have ridden but it is very stable. It is really easy to average and maintain a cocnsistent lap time, which is obviously a key point with Pirelli tyres. I think the biggest thing is that it is a stable package, I can just ride the bike hard and that’s something I have been aiming to try and do over the last few years and have not managed to achieve that.

“When you are not getting the most out of your bike, you are not riding well and you don’t gain confidence. At the minute with this bike, we’ve only had a half wet day and a half dry day basically but every time I do laps on it, I seem to be growing with confidence with the bike, which I believe, is the biggest key.”

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