VAN DER MARK IMPROVES IN RACE 2 AT PHILLIP ISLAND
The second FIM Superbike World Championship race of the opening round at Phillip Island saw Michael van der Mark seventh at the flag after 22 intense laps. Van der Mark found real improvements with his YZF-R1 race set-up to ride to a strong race and ended two places higher than his Saturday performance and much closer to the podium finishers. Van der Mark’s crew had made a late set-up change for the second race machine and it paid off well, as Michael finished only 7.307 seconds from the winner and felt that he had taken a good step forward in today’s frantic encounter.
Michael van der Mark (7th): “I was five seconds closer to the front compared to yesterday and it was easier to ride the bike. At the end I had a race on my own but I was happy because I was still doing consistent lap times and we improved the race performance. Today, in warm-up, we tried something new but I did not feel much of a difference. For the race we made a big change on the bike so I did not know what to expect. I made quite a good start but in the first corner I was a bit caught up with the other guys. The bike immediately felt easier to ride so we made a good improvement for this race, and in the beginning I stayed with the front group. I had a battle with Eugene Laverty but it cost me some time, and after that Tom Sykes passed me. I didn’t drop too far away from him, and I think I learned a lot about the Yamaha and how I can improve in this race.”
Results
Warm up