Honda Racing's Leon Haslam believes the new Fireblade is close to WorldSBK podium ready after a more progress at the recent Catalunya test.

Haslam enters his second race weekend on the new bike at Jerez starting tomorrow and believes setup work done at the Barcelona track will add grist to the HRC mill in Andalucia.

“It feels a long time since Australia, but I’m looking forward to Jerez, a very nice circuit though with a different character of course," said Haslam.

"Pre-season testing was not so bad for us, but it will be good to head back to Spain now with the new settings we have found for our bike and line up against the other riders again.

"I think our package was already podium-worthy in Australia, but the result was not what we wanted and so now we have another chance to work towards the kind of results we are looking for.”