MIXED FEELINGS FOR VAN DER MARK AFTER RACE TWO AT MISANO
The Honda WorldSBK Team has completed the Riviera di Rimini round of the World Superbike Championship by taking part in today’s race two at the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ in Italy. Michael van der Mark finished the second encounter of the weekend in tenth place. Van der Mark got a great launch from row four and was sixth on the opening lap of the encounter. Unfortunately for the young Dutchman, there was nothing he could do to avoid the sliding Ducati of Chaz Davies on lap three, when the Welshman fell in front of him at turn 14. Van der Mark was able to re-join the race in twenty-second place and did his utmost up to recover as many positions as possible before the chequered flag, eventually crossing the line in tenth. Despite the setback, the 2014 World Supersport Champion displayed a very competitive pace throughout race, which was on par with the leaders.
Michael van der Mark (10th): “This morning we tried some different things with the set-up but due to the cold temperatures we couldn’t really get any real information on it so we decided to revert back to yesterday’s settings, with some little tweaks here and there. I got a good start, although I got held up a little in the first two turns after what happened yesterday and that cost me some places. I then took them all back in the following turns and settled into a nice rhythm, until Chaz crashed in front of me. It was a weird one, because it was really early in the race. I picked my bike up immediately because I knew there were a lot of laps left and then just went as fast as I could. Considering the circumstances, tenth is a good result but a frustrating one, too, because I had a great pace. Without that setback, I think it would have been another podium for us.”
Round nine of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship will take place at Laguna Seca in the United States of America in three weeks’ time.