Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam felt he ‘went the wrong way’ in the World Superbike qualifying practice session in Imola this afternoon, after setup issues meant he was not able to progress from the earlier free practice session.

The Brit, who is still recovering from a broken leg, was seventh fastest in this morning’s first free practice session at the circuit, but a change in settings on his CBR1000RR machine this afternoon hampered the rider, and he ended the day thirteenth fastest. Haslam felt the final session of the day was a waste of time, but he has learnt from the experience and will make in roads tomorrow to be competitive for Superpole.

“The muscles in my leg were a little sore at the beginning of the qualifying session so I eased my way into it, trying a few changes to the bike. But we basically went back nearly to where we were this morning and ended up running out of time. I went something like half a second faster than this morning, but I though we’d be a lot quicker than we actually were because this morning’s time was on a used hard tyre,” said Haslam.

“This afternoon we used a softer, new tyre and the time didn’t come, while everyone else went a lot quicker. I felt we had a good base this morning and just went the wrong way this afternoon, so it was a bit of a wasted session really. But we learned from it and we’ll make the right steps tomorrow.”