Leon Haslam took his first podium for the Pata Honda team - his 29th in total - in the second of today’s two wet eleventh round World Superbike championship races at Magny-Cours in France.

The 31-year-old British rider, who finished sixth in the first 19-lap race at the 4.411km French circuit, made some positive changes to his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade for race two, in which he engaged in a prolonged battle with reigning world champion Tom Sykes.

Having caught Sykes with seven laps to go, Haslam tried everything to get by, eventually riding around the outside of his rival at turn seven with two laps remaining to take a fantastic podium for him and his team.

It was the team’s second podium of the day after Jonathan Rea finished third in race one. Having taken an early lead, Rea found it difficult to apply his CBR’s power to the slippery Magny-Cours circuit and the 27-year-old dropped behind eventual race winner Sylvain Guintoli and second-placed Marco Melandri.

Rea stormed into the lead again in the early laps of race two and had settled into a comfortable rhythm before becoming one of no fewer than 13 riders caught out by the treacherous Magny-Cours surface and crashing out unhurt at turn seven.

The World Superbike championship now breaks for four weeks before the final round of the series at the Losail circuit in Qatar on 2 November.

Leon Haslam - 6th and 3rd

It’s been a tough two seasons, with a leg break last year and a few other problems I’ve been having, so a big thanks to the team, to Pata and to Honda who’ve stood by me. I’ve managed to repay them with a podium so I’m over the moon. We had our share of issues over the weekend, first in Superpole and in the second part of race one when I lost all straight line grip. But the boys made some changes for race two and it was definitely a step forward, although I still suffered a bit in the same area. It was also quite difficult starting from the fourth row of the grid because I couldn’t really see anything for the first few laps. By the time I got past a few guys the leaders had already gone. But I was really happy to beat Tom in the end – it was one thing getting to him but qui te another getting by. I passed him the first time on the brakes but started wheel-spinning and lost all my drive. I felt that I had a lot better pace than him but he was being really defensive. I lost both wheels trying to go outside him at turn three and then tried again at the hairpin and ran wide. I was running out of laps though so to get by him and then open a gap made me quite happy. We can go to Doha in a month’s time a little happier now.


Jonathan Rea - 3rd and DNF

It’s been a day of two halves really. Race one went OK although I really struggled with the power character in the wet today. It seems like Magny-Cours has just got really slippery in recent years and today’s conditions really highlighted that problem. It was satisfying to get on the podium but I wanted to give a little bit more to try and win. So for race two my team gave me some good changes but we didn’t quite solve the problem. I was still struggling in some areas but I was able to get to the front and this time just stay in a really good rhythm. Unfortunately, from the data we can see that, in turn five and six, I went through on a closed throttle as opposed to partially opened, and that was enough to have the engine braking kick in and bring the rear round. It came round so fast, I had no chance t o save it and it’s frustrating to get my first DNF of the year. One of my main targets was to finish all races this season but, speaking to the team’s technical co-ordinator and my crew chief, the target was to get to the front and go for the win this afternoon. I crashed at the front trying to win the race so I can’t be too hard on myself.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

We were relatively fast with both guys in warm-up this morning but the pace in race one was a lot faster which threw up a couple of settings issues. Jonathan got a satisfying podium in race one, while Leon had to fight back from a slow start which left him quite a gap so he ended up sixth. We changed the settings for both guys in race two and we improved. This was clear when Jonathan took off and held on to the lead for the first half of the race. Unfortunately he pushed a little too hard and crashed out but this can happen when you give it all to go for the win. Leon had a much better start in race two and that put him in a position to fight for the places that matter. He was racing with Sykes for a long time, fighting for third and in a great manoeuvre he took that final podium place. We are all so happy for him and hi s team that he got finally there. It’s been a tough couple of seasons and I’m really pleased for them all.


Event results - Round 11- Race 1

1 Sylvain Guintoli 36'45.206 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Marco Melandri 2.257 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Jonathan Rea 5.954 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
4 Tom Sykes 15.670 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
5 Loris Baz 16.149 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Leon Haslam 29.411 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
7 Davide Giugliano 57.319 ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
8 Lorenzo lanzi 59.306 ITA DUCATI 3C Racing Team
9 Max Neukirchner 1'12.274 GER DUCATI 3C Racing Team
10 Sylvain Barrier 1'22.931 FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
11 Niccolo Canepa 1'39.670 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
12 Jeremy Guarnoni 1'42.886 FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
13 Claudio Corti 2'03.253 ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
14 Bryan Staring 1 Lap AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
15 Fabien Foret 1 Lap FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
16 Nicolas Salchaud 1 Lap FRA MV AGUSTA Dream Team Company
17 Sheridan Morais 2 Laps RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
18 Geoff May 2 Laps USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
19 Eugene Laverty 2 Laps IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
20 Imre Toth 3 laps HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
21 Gabor Rizmayer DNF HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
22 Aaron Yates DNF USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
23 Xavi Fores DNF ESP DUCATI 3C Racing Team
24 Alessandro Andreozzi DNF ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
25 Toni Elias DNF SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
26 Alex Lowes DNF GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
27 Chaz Davies DNF GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team

Event results - Round 11- Race 2

1 Marco Melandri 36'25.402 ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 2.669 FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Leon Haslam 16.450 GBR HONDA Pata Honda
4 Tom Sykes 20.759 GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
5 Lorenzo lanzi 46.689 ITA DUCATI 3C Racing Team
6 Max Neukirchner 58.490 GER DUCATI 3C Racing Team
7 Loris Baz 1'03.100 FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
8 Claudio Corti 1'24.699 ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
9 Chaz Davies 1'27.899 GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
10 Niccolo Canepa 1'51.706 ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
11 Fabien Foret 1 Lap FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
12 Gabor Rizmayer 2 Laps HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
13 Imre Toth 2 Laps HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
14 Bryan Staring DNF AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
15 Eugene Laverty DNF IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
16 Xavi Fores DNF ESP DUCATI 3C Racing Team
17 Jeremy Guarnoni DNF FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
18 Jonathan Rea DNF GBR HONDA Pata Honda
19 Sylvain Barrier DNF FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
20 Sheridan Morais DNF RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
21 Davide Giugliano DNF ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
22 Geoff May DNF USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
23 Alex Lowes DNF GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
24 Aaron Yates DNF USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
25 Toni Elias DNF SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
26 Nicolas Salchaud DNF FRA MV AGUSTA Dream Team Company
27 Alessandro Andreozzi DNF ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini

Championship standings

1 Tom Sykes 378 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
2 Sylvain Guintoli 366 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
3 Marco Melandri 312 pts ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team
4 Jonathan Rea 301 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
5 Loris Baz 282 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
6 Chaz Davies 195 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
7 Leon Haslam 176 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda
8 Davide Giugliano 162 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team
9 Eugene Laverty 154 pts IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
10 Toni Elias 151 pts SPA APRILIA Red Devils Roma
11 Alex Lowes 126 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki
12 David Salom 95 pts ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team
13 Niccolo Canepa 65 pts ITA DUCATI Althea Racing
14 Jeremy Guarnoni 45 pts FRA KAWASAKI MRS Kawasaki
15 Sylvain Barrier 38 pts FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
16 Leon Camier 37 pts GBR BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
17 Claudio Corti 25 pts ITA MV AGUSTA MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
18 Sheridan Morais 24 pts RSA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
19 Alessandro Andreozzi 21 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
20 Fabien Foret 20 pts FRA KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
21 Lorenzo lanzi 19 pts ITA DUCATI 3C Racing Team
22 Max Neukirchner 17 pts GER DUCATI 3C Racing Team
23 Luca Scassa 16 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
24 Bryan Staring 14 pts AUS KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
25 Gabor Rizmayer 7 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
26 Glen Allerton 6 pts AUS BMW BMW Motorrad Italia SBK
27 Riccardo Russo 5 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
28 Kervin Bos 5 pts NED HONDA Winteb LiquidRubber Racing T.
29 Imre Toth 5 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
30 Michel Fabrizio 2 pts ITA KAWASAKI IRON BRAIN Kawasaki SBK Team
31 Roamin Lanusse 1 pts FRA KAWASAKI Team Pedercini
32 Peter Sebestyen 0 pts HUN BMW BMW Team Toth
33 Nicolas Salchaud 0 pts FRA MV AGUSTA Dream Team Company
34 Geoff May 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR
35 Christian Iddon 0 pts GBR BIMOTA Team Alstare
36 Aaron Yates 0 pts USA BIMOTA Team Hero EBR

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