PRODUCTIVE OPENING DAY FOR VAN DER MARK IN GERMANY
The Honda WorldSBK Team has completed the first day of action for the German Round of the FIM Superbike World Championship, with both riders able to qualify directly to tomorrow’s Superpole 2 at the Lausitzring. Michael van der Mark ended the day in tenth after a very strong start of the weekend. The two Honda standard bearers made good use of the two-day test – performed last month at the same track – as they were able to turn their attention more on race pace and tyre evaluation. Great weather conditions allowed both riders to put in a considerable amount of laps and, as the second session went underway, the battle for the fastest lap heated up. An ultra-close FP2 ended up with the top 10 covered by 0.478s.
Michael van der Mark (10th / 1’37.927): “We started really well this morning: our speed was good from the first moment we went out on track. For this afternoon, we decided to play a little bit with the setup but in the end we couldn’t find a big improvement. Our pace on the distance is really good, but we need to find some more speed on the single lap and – most of all – some more grip for tomorrow. Luckily enough we made it through for Superpole 2 and that’s probably the best thing that could have happened today. We’re not too far from the top and I’m sure that, with some tweaks to our Fireblade, we will be able to go a bit quicker tomorrow.”