No home satisfaction for Rea and Haslam

Pata Honda World Superbike riders Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam did not leave their home race at Donington Park in the UK today with great satisfaction, but take away a collection of points from their top ten finishes in the two fifth-round races.

Starting from eighth place on the grid for the two 23-lappers around the 4.023km Donington Park circuit, Rea struggled for grip in both outings and took two sixth place finishes.

The 27-year-old from Northern Ireland came to the UK with a slender four-point lead in the championship over fellow Brit, Tom Sykes, who won both of today’s races. Rea remains second in the championship, however, tied with Loriz Baz who was second twice today.

Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate, Leon Haslam, put his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP on the front row for today’s races after a wet Superpole session yesterday.

However, the 30-year-old rider, who lives very close to Donington Park, was unable to give his friends, family and supporters much to cheer about, finishing eighth in race one and seventh in the second outing.

Jonathan Rea - sixth and sixth

It’s not been the perfect weekend after Imola, but I think we were ready for that. We really struggled on Friday with a few things and the low-grip nature of Donington caused us to suffer quite a lot throughout the weekend. In both races it was a struggle, and it’s difficult for me to understand how the bike was so good in Imola and why we struggled more here. But finishing two 23-lap races will give the guys some great data to take away and look at so that when, in the future, we arrive at circuits that aren’t so grippy, we can have an idea of how to maximise a result. We finished quite far from the race winners today and it’s not the best situation. But we can leave Donington with some positives and we’re all really looking forward to the next few races.

Leon Haslam - eighth and seventh

I was happy with qualifying in the wet but the races have not been good at all. Finishing eighth and seventh is only slightly offset by the fact that Jonathan had the same problems this weekend. In race two I caught up in some carnage with a couple of incidents at the hairpin and ended up dropping from third to about twelfth. That finished the afternoon for me, really, which is disappointing at my home round. Looking at the times we were doing, they’re not far off what I was doing two or three years ago. It’s been frustrating, of course, but I have a lot of faith and confidence in the team and Malaysia is a new track for everyone, so I’m looking forward to the next round.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

It’s clearly been quite a disappointing weekend, seeing the guys in sixth, seventh, eighth positions after such a strong event in Imola. In general we suffered from not having a dry Saturday because on Friday it became quite apparent that we needed some more time to make a good set-up. The guys are still de-briefing, checking what the problems were but, for sure, the general low level of grip did not work in our favour. We have some work to do if we are going to strike back in Sepang.

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