Leon Haslam has been forced to miss the remainder of this weekend’s Indonesia WorldSBK, his last race weekend as a world championship rider due to a shoulder injury.
The 2018 BSB champion had been dealing with the injury over the last few rounds which led to surgery following last month’s San Juan round.
This all comes after a very strong opening day for Haslam and Honda as he finished sixth overall in Mandalika, while team-mate Alvaro Bautista was two places higher in P4.
Despite being just three tenths off championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu who dominated proceedings, the team cited a lack of strength and pain as the major reasons why Haslam will miss the final two days.
Haslam himself called Friday’s running the best of the year aboard the CBR1000RR-R despite the injury, a situation he called ‘a big disappointment’.
“It’s a big disappointment to not be able to race here this weekend. This circuit has been fantastic, especially for the Honda and I was up inside the top six after FP2 despite my injury,” added Haslam.
“We were only 0.3 of a second from the fastest so, of all this year’s rounds and even in my current condition, this was probably the best Friday we’ve had, so being unable to race is very disappointing.
“I really wanted to round out the season and my time with the team on a positive note, but the guys have been amazing and very supportive of my shoulder injury.
“I simply didn’t expect to be in this much pain and that, combined with a lack of strength, means we cannot race this weekend, but I really want to thank Honda, HRC and the entire team because everyone’s been fantastic all season long.”
