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Sepang Saturday 2016

TOP 7 RESULT FOR VAN DER MARK IN RACE ONE AT SEPANG

  |   News Racing

The opening race of the Malaysian round has been contested today at the Sepang International Circuit, with Honda WorldSBK Team’s Michael van der Mark crossing the line in seventh position. Van der Mark will get another chance tomorrow as round six of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship will draw to a close with the second and final encounter of the weekend, scheduled at 4pm local time (GMT +8).

The Saturday afternoon action started with the sixth-round Superpole. Unable to take the best out of the qualifying tyre, Michael van der Mark found himself on the fourth row of the grid in tenth position after the session. As the race got underway, Van der Mark battled hard in the first few laps after a superb start. And in the final part of the encounter, team mate Nicky Hayden was caught by Van der Mark, who won the battle for seventh place over his fellow Honda WorldSBK rider.

Michael van der Mark (7th): “To be honest, in today’s Superpole I made a couple of mistakes that didn’t allow me to be much faster on a qualifying tyre. I got a good start to the race and I was feeling good in the first couple of corners, but immediately I felt I was missing some grip and I couldn’t handle the bike the way I wanted. I couldn’t attack and not even stay with the guys at the front. I was just trying to keep the quickest possible pace but towards the end of the race, I was passed by a couple of riders. Eventually I was able to overtake Nicky for seventh before the chequered flag, but it was clear that we were both having our own difficulties. We need to make some changes for tomorrow and turn our luck around for race two.”