Honda Powersports Racing - Road Schedule - 09 World Superbike

Leon Haslam (left) was the high-scoring Honda rider at Donington with his second-place finish in the second race of the day.

On Saturday’s race, Honda rider Leon Haslam put up quite a fight from a third-row start of ninth. Hard riding moved him up into fourth.

Leon Haslam: “In race two I got a little bit better start and learned a thing or two that we were struggling with… To hold off Fabrizio and Byrne and take second, after missing out in race one, I was pretty happy.”

Jonathan Rea, who qualified 12th in Superpole, never found the perfect setup for the slower corners. He was a fighting seventh in race one, but fell at Goddard’s in the second race, remounting to finish 15th.

Jonathan Rea: “I needed to be more aggressive in the second race start and it worked out... Then I lost the front, and looking at the telemetry I had arrived at the corner only a little faster than before. We struggled in that slow sector of the racetrack all weekend.”

After missing Misano, John Hopkins got through Superpole in 11th then rode his CBR1000RR to eighth in race one, before withdrawing from race two due to pain and lack of movement from his injured hip.

Former British Champion Ryuichi Kiyonari finished tenth in the opener and seventh in race two.

Ryuichi Kiyonari: "I hope that the test at Imola will allow us to fully test these new parts to get a better setting for the bike so I can make better results for the rest of the season."

Spaniard Carlos Checa was a second row qualifier, but scored an 11th-place finish in race one, and was one of a whole raft of crashers in race two.

Matthieu Lagrive made good progress in only his second ever WSB meeting, just missing points in race one by one place, but posting 12th in race two. He had only been 24th on the starting grid.