WORLD CHAMPION ON TOP AGAIN IN FRANCE
Recently-crowned World Supersport champion Michael van der Mark was in imperious form at Magny-Cours in France today in round 10 of the 2014 series that he wrapped up one month ago. The Pata Honda rider dominated both of today’s free practice sessions on his Honda CBR600RR to finish the day in provisional pole position with a time of 1m41.744s ahead of another free practice tomorrow morning and qualifying in the afternoon. Van der Mark was almost 0.7s ahead of his nearest rival after this morning’s 45-minute opening session and, despite only marginally improving his time this afternoon, still ended the day 0.2s ahead of Italian Roberto Tamburini.
Michael van der Mark: “The first day has been really good. We started step-by-step this morning and in the end I could do a really fast lap time – faster than I’ve ever been here. This afternoon we tried some different things but they didn’t really work. I improved my lap time a little bit but I wasn’t really comfortable. I was going for another really big step so for tomorrow we will change things back. I have a good feeling for the weekend.”
Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator: “The pressure is off Michael this weekend and his performance today has shown that. He was leading the pack in the opening session this morning. The other guys closed a little this afternoon but he didn’t really change much on the bike.”