VAN DER MARK SEVENTH IN SECOND RACE AT LAGUNA SECA
The ninth round of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship has drawn to an end for the Honda WorldSBK team, with Michael van der Mark finishing a shortened race two at Laguna Seca in seventh place. Courtesy of this weekend’s results, Van der Mark is now equal in points with fourth-placed Giugliano in the championship standings, while team mate Nicky Hayden is twelve points down in sixth.
The initial race was stopped during lap five following Pawel Szkopek’s spectacular crash at turn six. Van der Mark was at that moment at the back of the field in nineteenth, after crashing out at the Corkscrew on the opening lap and rejoining the race on board his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machine. The new 21-lap encounter got underway 20 minutes later and after going from nineteenth to tenth in just one lap, Van der Mark joined the five-way battle for fourth place, eventually getting the better of both Yamaha riders and finishing seventh.
The team will now return to its headquarters in the Netherlands, while Van der Mark and Hayden will fly off to Japan in order to start their preparations for the Suzuka 8 Hours, which takes place on July 29-31. The Dutch-based squad and the riders will then reunite halfway through August for a two-day test at the Lausitzring in Germany, the same circuit hosting the tenth round of the season on September 16-18.
Michael van der Mark (7th): “Something happened at the first start because the lights went off and on again and that created a bit of chaos. I wanted to move up as quickly as possible but when I tried to outbrake Camier at the Corkscrew I was too hard on the brakes and lost the rear. It was a bit scary, but thankfully I was able to find a gap between riders and avoid any collision. After that I tried to recover and surely the red flag helped me a lot. I had a good start from the back of the field and managed to get close to the top 10 by the end of the first lap. I wanted to make up some more places but the feeling with the bike was not the same as yesterday; I could close the gap a bit with the guys ahead but that was it. It was really hard to stay with them, but overall we must be happy with our seventh place today and with the weekend overall.”