BMW MOTORRAD WORLDSBK TEAM ENDS MOST DEBUT IN WORLDSBK WITH A SOLID SUNDAY OF RACING
The Autodrom Most debut in the FIM Superbike World Championship ended with a solid day of racing for BMW Motorrad Motorsport. First on Sunday morning was the Superpole race. BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team rider Michael van der Mark climbed into eleventh place from 17th on the grid in this race over 10 laps.
Van der Mark gave another eye-catching performance in race two on Sunday afternoon, gaining ten positions with an impressive fightback. Having started 17th, he crossed the finish line 22 laps later in seventh place, just half a second outside the top five. After the start, van der Mark had to take evasive measures to avoid a multi-bike crash, before launching his assault on the front of the field. By lap three he had reached the top ten. After seven laps, he was running ninth. The Dutchman climbed into seventh place on lap 17.
Michael: “I think at the end of the weekend it was not too bad. Especially this morning in the Superpole race I had such good pace, I improved over a second compared to yesterday and I was really happy on the bike. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good start, I was a bit unlucky at T1 and couldn’t gain as many positions as I hoped so for race two I had to start from 17th again. The first run off the line was good and then the bike started to wheelie so we lost a little bit of time. Something happened at T1, but I was quite smart and took a tight line and avoided a lot of people. After that we had good pace and I was catching the guys in front one by one but I just couldn’t get by Rinaldi. Together we passed some people and in the end I tried to grab sixth or fifth. Overall, I think after all the struggles this weekend the team deserved a solid result.”