Leon Haslam continued his quiet ascension back into overall top th♔ree contention with a third consec🌜utive podium on home soil at Donington Park.

The Kawasaki Racing rider has enjoyed a positive weekend at his local circuit thus far and was in similarly good form in✅ the wet during race one as he battled with Tom Sykes and Loris Baz initially, eventually slotting into third place.

Howev🧔🌌er, though it marked a third straight podium for the 2018 British Superbike Champion, Haslam admits he was at times pushing the edge of the limit to make up time.

🐷“It wasn’t the start that determined my race although I did get held up a little bit in the first two laps with Tom,” he said. “As soon as I started to push like I had been doing in practice and qualifying in the rain, I did not have the same feeling.

“To be honest I f👍elt like I struggled at times today. I got a little bit caught up with Baz and that let Tom get away. The lap times I could do when I ℱgot a clear lap were not so bad, but I felt like I was pushing the limit too much to get that kind of lap time.

“So, I backed it down and got third. From quite early on in the race I was trying to just manage it and bring it ho🌳me on the po🐼dium.”

The result moves him just 11 points behind Alex Lowes for fourth overall, while Michael van der Mark is 22 points fu🔥rther ahead in third.