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Sunday Lausitz 2016

GERMAN RAIN MAKES FOR AN EXTRA CHALLENGE TO VAN DER MARK IN RACE TWO

  |   News Racing

Round 10 of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship has drawn to a close for the Honda WorldSBK Team, with Michael van der Mark finishing race two at the Lausitzring in eighth place. After being delayed a couple of times due to adverse weather conditions, the race got underway at 13:47 with a reduced race distance of 16 laps and was contested on a very slippery surface.

Van der Mark maintained his position at the start and, as the race reached its halfway point, he was sixth but under pressure from former teammate Sylvain Guintoli, who got past him two laps later. With three laps to go, the young Dutchman crashed out of seventh place at turn nine; despite substantial damage on his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machine, he bravely re-joined the race to claim an eighth place at the line.

Michael van der Mark (8th): “We had a nice dry warm up, in which we tried a couple of changes which gave us a bit more grip and I definitely felt better on the bike compared to yesterday. When it was time to race, race direction decided it was better to wait given the amount of rain that was falling. It was the right decision as there was basically no visibility at all. I got a good start to the race but the track was very slippery and I couldn’t lean as much as I wanted. After a couple of laps, I saw Giugliano crashing out of the race and I immediately thought about the championship situation, because the priority was to stay upright. Then, with three laps to go I simply locked the front and crashed. I really wanted to finish the race so I picked up the bike and rode two laps with barely any front brake. These are very important points for me, so all in all I’m not too disappointed.”