Relentless Effort Earns Valuable Points for Moto Rapido Racing at Donington
Moto Rapido Racing endured a challenging but ultimately productive second round of the 2026 ZYN British Superbike Championship at Donington Park and leave the East Midlands sitting third in the championship standings following another determined weekend for Leon Haslam and the team aboard the Ducati Panigale V4R.
The team arrived at Donington Park full of confidence after a superb opening round at Oulton Park where Haslam secured a hat trick of second-place finishes to leave the opening round second in the championship standings.
Thursday’s set-up ran smoothly and the team entered Friday optimistic about continuing their momentum but free practice one quickly became a difficult opening session. A series of technical issues severely limited track time leaving Haslam 16th at the end of FP1 and over a second adrift of pace setter Scott Redding.
Despite the frustrating start the team regrouped quickly ahead of free practice two and immediately found progress. After returning to pitlane early in the session to relay further feedback to the crew the Moto Rapido Racing squad turned the bike around rapidly before sending Haslam back onto circuit where he responded in typical fashion.
Digging deep with limited laps to work with Haslam delivered a 1:27.404 lap time to move himself into fifth position by the end of the session securing direct progression into Q2 and restoring confidence inside the garage after a difficult opening to the day.
Qualifying proved equally intense with traffic and frustration threatening to derail the session before a late final run saw Haslam produce an outstanding lap under pressure to secure fourth on the grid.
Sunday morning brought the familiar tension that only race day can create. Despite further unusual feedback during warm up creating additional headaches for the team the Moto Rapido Racing crew once again worked relentlessly to provide Haslam with improvements ahead of race one.
Launching well from the second row, Haslam immediately settled into fourth position heading into Redgate for the opening time. While the pace at the front proved difficult to match early in the race particularly with tyre degradation becoming a major factor throughout the field Haslam rode a measured and intelligent race to secure fourth place and valuable championship points.
The result felt particularly significant given the amount of adversity the team had already overcome across the weekend.
Sunday’s sprint race brought another hard-fought battle with Haslam once again finding himself locked into an intense scrap inside the second group. Despite strong pace early on tyre life once again became critical around the unforgiving Donington Park circuit eventually forcing the team to settle for fifth position at the chequered flag.
That result placed the Moto Rapido Racing Ducati sixth on the grid for the final 20 lap feature race of the weekend.
Determined to remain attached to the leading group Haslam made an aggressive start and quickly worked his way forward before settling into the lead train during the opening laps. For over half the race the former champion battled hard inside the front group but as tyre performance dropped away and the bike characteristics changed dramatically in the closing stages the gap eventually began to open.
Managing the race intelligently once more Haslam brought the Ducati home in fifth position to conclude a demanding but valuable weekend for the team.
While the overall feeling inside the garage was one of frustration due to the exceptionally high standards the team set themselves reflection afterwards showed the positives of another strong points haul from a difficult weekend. Moto Rapido Racing leave Donington Park third in the championship standings, just 22 points behind championship leader Kyle Ryde and only three points adrift of Scott Redding.
“I felt really frustrated mainly because it took us some time to find a good feeling. The frustration is because I want to give the boys the results they deserve. I can’t even begin to tell you how relentless these boys are in never stopping to give me what I need.”
Team Manager Ian ‘Hammy’ Darbyshire said:
“Given the way this team operates and the expectations we set ourselves we probably leave here feeling a little deflated but that also shows our mentality. If a weekend where we leave with 34 points feels difficult then it shows the level we expect from ourselves.”
“Leon was incredible this weekend in really tough circumstances. We had to work unbelievably hard every single session and the whole crew showed complete professionalism throughout.”
“There’s positives everywhere if we step back and look at it properly. We’re learning more about this bike and tyre package every time we roll out and that information will be massively valuable moving forward.”
Crew Chief Wilf said:
“A tough weekend. We expected a lot more. But that’s just a reflection on the level of our rider and team. We gained a lot of information and experience with this bike and tyre.”
“We have some time now, so I’ll find what we need. We used every minute we had this weekend. There are a lot of positives that you never really talk about because the things we want to improve naturally take priority, but we’ve put the work in and we’ll continue to do so.”
Moto Rapido Racing now head into a four-week break before round three of the 2026 ZYN British Superbike Championship at Knockhill in Scotland. A circuit known for producing some of the closest and most dramatic racing of the season.
