CHALLENGING SUNDAY FOR VAN DER MARK AT ARAGON
Michael van der Mark has scored an eighth place in today’s second race of the WorldSBK at Aragon. Van der Mark’s Race 2 was hampered by having to start from the fourth row of the grid, following the incident with Michael Rinaldi at turn one in the Superpole Race. Because of this crash he ended the Superpole Race in 15th place. Despite this setback, Michael lined up at the start of Race 2 confident he could fight his way through the field and into the battle for the podium, as he did in Race 1 yesterday, but this time his progress was slowed by front-end chatter. Van der Mark was left with little option but to ride around the problem and pick up valuable points with eighth place at the finish. Van der Mark remains fourth in the series standings with 79 points, five more than fifth-placed Leon Haslam.
Results Tissot Superpole Race
Results Race 2
Michael van der Mark – Pata Yamaha WorldSBK – Championship Position 4th – 79 Points: “I was really unlucky in the Superpole race. Rinaldi crashed right in front of me, there was no way to avoid him and down I went too. So we knew Race 2 was going to be difficult starting from 12th on the grid, but yesterday I started 11th and had a reasonable result, so I was hoping for the same today. I got a good start again, but didn’t gain as many places as I expected, because I was struggling with the front of the bike from the beginning. It was weird because I actually felt really strong on the bike, except in just a few corners where the chatter made it difficult. It’s a shame because, if I had the same front feeling as I had yesterday, I think the result would have been a lot better. Overall it’s been a tough weekend, but we made some steps forward yesterday, which we can learn from to ensure we’re ready for Assen next weekend.”