Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam is one very happy rider this evening, after comfortably placing his bike on the second row for the World Superbike double-header in Qatar.

One thing that has pleased the Smalley rider was the fact that the transition between moving from the race tyre to the qualifier went smoothly, and everything with the bike stayed ‘stable’ which has been his goal all year.

Haslam set the sixth fastest time on his Fireblade and was one tenth faster than his team-mate Jonathan Rea. Now the rider is looking forward to ending his year on a high.

“I’m really happy actually, and moving from the race tyre to the qualifier in Superpole, everything stayed stable which is what we’ve been aiming for all year,” said Haslam at the track.

“The last few rounds have been quite positive with the way we’ve got the balance of the bike and the way we’ve got the electronics working. I made a little mistake on the Q and I think the lap could have been a little bit quicker but I’m on the second row for the last two races of the year and I’m really, really happy.”

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