Leon Haslam feels he could have fought for the podium at Laguna Seca but his heavy openinꦐg race fall restrained him from extracting his own full potential for Kawasaki.

The British rider suffered an off during the opening race at the US round coming down The Corkscrew and sustainꦡed a hand ꦉcontusion and knock to the head.

After being declared fi🃏t to race by the World Superbike medical staff for the Superpole sprint race and race two, Haslam fought to fifth place and sixth place respectively but his injuries restrained his charge having felt his Kawasaki ZX-10RR package had the pace to reach the podium.

“I felt we had good pace and we were there for that podium pace,” Halsam said. “I could catch Tom Sykes and Alex quite comfort💞ably but in the end I just struggled with myself, not 💜the bike.

“Especially braking into left hand corners - and there are a fair few of them here. I was disappointed with the crash yesterday and I have suffered all day with my wrist and the pain transferred into my shouldꦯer because I was not riding as freely.

“I can’t be too unhapp𝓀y as it was my mistake when we crashed in 🧸Race 1, but we have had a fifth and sixth today and were not far off the podium pace.”

Haslam remains fifth in the Wo𝓀rld Superbike riders’ standings going into theꦏ summer break and holds an 11-point advantage over Puccetti Kawasaki’s Toprak Razgatlioglu in sixth place.