BMW MOTORRAD MOTORSPORT CONCLUDES THE INDONESIA WORLDSBK ROUND
BMW Motorrad Motorsport has concluded the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) race weekend in Mandalika in Indonesia. Enormous heat and a relatively large amount of dirt on the track off the line made the weekend a huge challenge for all teams and riders.
In the Superpole qualification, held on Saturday morning, Michael van der Mark (NED) was 11th. In race one, van der Mark was initially the best-placed BMW rider. After an excellent start, he had made his way up to sixth place, however, in the fight for a top six result, he crashed a few laps before the end and retired. On Sunday, Van der Mark finished tenth in the Superpole Race and 12th in the second main race.
WorldSBK now directly heads to Phillip Island in the south of Australia where the 2022 season finale will be held this coming weekend (18th to 20th November).
Michael van der Mark, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 11 / R01: DNF / SP Race: 10 / R02: 12): “Today’s Superpole Race was alright, I just lost a bit of confidence and didn’t feel as comfortable as yesterday. We didn’t change a lot, but I think with the temperature, the bike reacted a bit more than we expected. So P10 in the Superpole Race, unfortunately no points. Then in race two, I had an okay start but got in a bit of trouble in turns two and three, so I lost a lot of time there. I was trying to catch the guys in front of me, but I didn’t have the same confidence as yesterday and unfortunately had contact from another rider when he pushed me off track, so I lost a lot of time. But at least I scored some points today and got to the finish. Overall, the way I was riding yesterday was like my old self, so I am happy with the weekend as it’s a long time since I had that confidence. Now I am looking forward to Australia. It is a bit weird to have it as the last round but it’s a lovely place to go and one of my favourite tracks in the world. It is a special track, no one really knows what to expect but with the confidence I had this weekend we are going to have some good results there.”