BMW MOTORRAD MOTORSPORT IN WORLDSBK: MICHAEL VAN DER MARK MAKES A STRONG COMEBACK AFTER HIS INJURY BREAK
Portimão. BMW Motorrad Motorsport reflects on an extremely successful penultimate season event of the 2023 FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) at Portimão, Portugal. Michael van der Mark (NED) from the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team made a strong comeback with several impressive seventh-place finishes after his injury break.
In the Superpole qualifying session on Saturday morning, van der Mark was the best BMW rider, finishing seventh. Due to a penalty for a competitor, van der Mark moved up one position on the start grid for race one on Saturday afternoon.
The race once again showcased the potential of the BMW M 1000 RR. Van der Mark was running in the front group after a good start and was fifth before spending a long time in fourth place during the second half of the race. Van der Mark only lost a few positions towards the end and secured an important strong result, finishing seventh.
In the Superpole race on Sunday morning, van der Mark confirmed his seventh place with another consistent performance. He concluded the weekend with an 11th place in Race 2.
The season finale of WorldSBK 2023 will take place from October 27th to 29th at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.
Michael van der Mark, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 7 / R01: 7 / SP Race: 7 / R02: 11): “I am really happy with the weekend overall. From Friday on, I straight away felt very good on the bike. We keep working on the bike but we just made small changes. I am really happy with this weekend’s results. This morning P7 in the Superpole race, I was quite happy with it. I saw that I just miss some race rhythm but anyway, I was really satisfied. The field is so close and you must have a good start position. So it was P7 on the grid for race two. I had a really good start. Unfortunately in turn one, I was a bit unlucky and then I couldn’t gain the places back. And honestly I struggled a bit, I just didn’t feel as good as I felt before. But it’s another race under our belt, we scored some good points and most of all, I enjoyed riding this weekend very much.”