Reigning British Superbike Champion Leon Haslam is dealing well with the pressure of being in the WorldSBK championship-dominating team at Phillip Island, ending the opening day third on the combined timesheet.
Haslam only used two rear tyres during the two free practices as he worked on race setup but still managed to finish with only a 0.155s deficit to leader Alvaro Bautista and 0.014s to team-mate Jonathan Rea.
“It is so good to be back here on Phillip Island. I am loving it with the KRT team and Kawasaki, making really good steps every session. My crew chief Marcel said on the Monday before the official tests that we wanted to go quicker in every session and I think we achieved that goal,” said Haslam.
“This session it has been barely a tenth better than this morning, but every session has been quicker. Step-by-step we are getting closer. I have used two tyres today, for two race runs, and I am feeling pretty good.
“The aim is obviously to challenge for podiums here. I have good memories of Phillip Island because last time I was here in 2015 I won a race. It would be nice to revisit that memory but it will not be easy. There are a lot of fast guys out there. We will work session by session now and see what we can do.”
In the official KRT squad, and teamed-up with a crew chief, Marcel Duinker, who knows what it is like to win world championships, the ‘other’ side of the KRT garage is firing as potently as any of the top runners so far.
Haslam was not sure that he would be quite as reliably quick quite so early in his great return, but he thinks starting out at PI for round one does not hurt his cause.
“I knew obviously that it was going to be difficult but coming to PI of all track is one that I have always gone well at,” he said after posting third best time overall on day one of practice. “I think back to 2015 and we did 1’30.7s on the Aprilia in FP3, so to go faster than that I am really happy about. But the biggest thing to concentrate on has been tyre life. Everyone here at this track knows how you ride, how you set your bike up, how you manage - it is key. I have done two full race distances today so I am feeling quite happy and confident where we are.”
Haslam’s pace was not even held back by losing the final part of the FP2 session, after a small but session-ending technical issue.
“It was just a gear linkage that came off and I got stuck in one gear. I did not want to break anything so I just pulled off track. I only lost the last 12-13 minutes, so it was not too bad.”
Haslam is not one of those riders who seems unduly worried about tyre life, or the lack of it, even if the temperatures get hotter than the relatively mild first day of FP1 and FP2.
“For me the hotter it gets the better it can be,” stated Haslam. “We went faster with these hotter conditions, where a lot of other riders were slower. For me we made more 1’30s in the hotter conditions than we did this morning.
"We are in a better place the hotter it gets and Sunday looks very hot, so hopefully this could slow the Ducatis and other guys out.”
