Leon Haslam's traumatic week ended on a high note in the opening round of the World Superbike Championship in Australia.

The Smalley star shrugged off the pain of a broken leg to claim 12th and fifth places in yesterday's opening two races of the campaign at the Phillip Island circuit.

The works BMW rider crashed during testing at the 2.76-miletrack last Monday and fractured the bottom of his tibia bone in his right leg and broke bones in both feet.

On Thursday morning he underwent surgery in Melbourne to have two 44mm titanium screws inserted in the bone.

The 28-year-old then completed two tentative laps of qualifying on Friday afternoon before completing Saturday's practice and qualifying, earning 12th place – on the third row of the grid – for yesterday's two 22-lap races.

"Overall I'm really happy," said Haslam. "We did have a problem in race one which I couldn't ride around – even though simply scoring points was the objective I knew I could have done better."

Haslam said: "The boys worked really hard between races. They changed engines, electronics and the balance of the machine and straightaway I was able to fight for a top-five position.

"It's a big credit to all the team, the team's medical staff and the surgeon who managed to get me out there in the first place.

"My feet are now black with bruising and I've got a couple of days resting in Phillip Island before flying home, so I'll get to work on helping all of the injuries recover properly."

Haslam expressed his condolences to the family and friends of 17-year-old Oscar McIntyre, who died in a Supersport 600 race on Saturday, which resulted in the cancelle3ation of Superpole qualifying.

In the opening race , Haslam was running as high as tenth place but eventually finished 12th.

The second race, with radical improvements made to his machine, went much better as Haslam eventually crossed the finishing line fifth, one place ahead of his team-mate Marco Melandri, who gained BMW's best-ever WSB result by finishing second to Max Biaggi (Aprilia) in the opener.

Haslam sits in eighth in the championship after the first of 14 rounds.



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