Haslam: i want to forget race two…

Leon Haslam says he feels he was 'denied a well-deserved victory' during the second World Superbike race of the day at Donington Park, but has vowed to move on from the now infamous last corner incident. An eventful day for local rider, Haslam was embroiled with the leaders in both races, but lost his chance to challenge for victory in race one when he ran on at the Esses whilst following team-mate Marco Melandri too closely. Indeed, though he was still able to join in on BMW's maiden 1-2 finish at World Superbike level, he admits he was 'disappointed' not to get that long awaited first victory for the manufacturer. “I had a good pace in race one. In the end, I have to say that I am kind of disappointed with the second place. I had a big wobble out of Coppers and it actually put me on the right hand side of Marco instead of the left, and he braked a bit earlier that lap. I had nowhere to go, so I opted for the gravel. It was kind of a combination of things that caught me out but fair play to Marco. A BMW 1-2 result is just fantastic.” Reflecting on the second race, Haslam was upset to be eliminated at the final bend, just metres from what would have almost certainly been a victory. Despite this, he insists he just wants to move on and focus on the next rounds. “Right now I just want to forget race two. I feel a bit frustrated because I was going for my first win for BMW Motorrad – at my home round, but we were denied that well deserved victory. The crash was not my fault at all… “Anyway, that's racing, and we're now looking forward to the next round. Hopefully we can turn things around at the next race meeting at Salt Lake City. I want to dedicate my race one result to Robert Fearnall, who was a close friend of the family.” Despite missing out on a potential 25 points in the second race, Haslam remains in the title hunt, albeit 39.5 points adrift of Max Biaggi.