BMW MOTORRAD WORLDSBK TEAM COMPLETE THE OPENING DAY OF THE WORLDSBK ESTORIL ROUND
Following on from an impressive opening round at the MotorLand Aragon circuit, the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team duo of Michael van der Mark (NED) and Tom Sykes (GBR) today completed day 1 of the WorldSBK round in Estoril.
In the opening FP1 session Michael van der Mark’s BMW M1000 RR unfortunately had some technical issues which forced him to miss most of the session, only completing 4 laps and as a result finishing in P16. The afternoons FP2 session saw an increase in track temperature, which made the session difficult for all competitors. Despite that, it held better fortune for Michael van der Mark as he managed to gain some valuable laps around the 4.182 km circuit lapping his best of a 1’38.293 in P12, narrowly missing out on the top 10 combined places.
“It was not an easy Friday, unfortunately this morning we lost most of the session with a technical problem, which was a lot of important time lost. Then this afternoon’s session we went out, but in the opening stages I struggled with the grip of the bike. We made some changes during the session which was a big improvement, and I was able to improve my lap time which I was happy about. For us, the most important thing is to complete a full session tomorrow morning and make some progress from today.”