Leon Haslam has dedicated his podium finish in the first World Superbike round of the season at Phillip Island to his Stiggy Racing team.

Haslam's third career WSBK podium after third place finishes at Oschersleben in 2004 and Portimao in 2008, the result is possibly more notable for that fact it was achieved on Stiggy Racing's first weekend as a Superbike team.

“It is a great result for a satellite Honda team that has never competed in Superbikes before,” he said. “They have had a lot of things to learn since they announced they were moving up, so this podium is more credit to them really.

“The bike was capable of that result, but there is so much potential to it – there is so much more to come. It's really exciting. The emotion of the team and everyone else is fantastic. It is just a shame all of my mechanics had to leave Sunday night, but I'm sure we can save the celebrations for a few nights out over the rest of the season.”

A successful day all round for Johan Stigefelt's team, who also managed a podium finish in the World Supersport category with Anthony West, Haslam is nonetheless aware that improvements need to made to the engine after admitting to struggling at times in a straight line.

“In race two, I was battling with Fabrizio for the majority of the race, but he kept getting away from me on the straight. Each lap I was really concentrating on making up what I was losing in a straight line through the corners and not making mistakes.