Stiggy Honda's Leon Haslam has said there is more to come from his World Superbike Fireblade despite being at the top of the qualifying timesheets until the last seconds of the session.

The www.bikesportnews.com columnist set his fastest lap with a few minutes to and was only knocked off top-spot at the very death, first by Noriyuki Haga and then by fastest man Jakub Smrz.

"I'm really happy! We had a great qualifying session. I was fastest up until the very last seconds, but I'm happy with my third place and my lap-times," said Haslam.

"In the beginning of the session we used an old tyre and went through all the different combinations we wanted to try, so that was good. When we put on a new tyre at the end of the session, the lap-times came easily.

"We got the suspension to work a lot better, but I can also feel that there is still lots more to come. We have some front end issues to work on tomorrow but, all and all, it’s really working well."