Leon Haslam and the new Honda Fireblade can benefit from the ultra-long straight at Portimao this weekend and take advantage of the bike’s high top speed.

Haslam, and team-mate Alvaro Bautista, will be able to rival the Panigale V4R in Portugal as both bikes saw 204mph at Phillip Island and the main drag at the Autodromo is 130 metres longer at nearly one kilometre, albeit uphill at the start.

“I think Portimão can be a good track for us as the Honda is very fast and the circuit’s main straight is one of the best places to pass,” said Haslam.

“It also requires a lot of hard braking and one of the things we’ve been working on is our straight-line braking, so I can say I’m looking forward to it.

“It’s a real rollercoaster of a track, where we see some big wheelies, so there are various things to manage but I hope we can use our third event to better understand where we need to continue working.”