CHALLENGING WEEKEND FOR BMW MOTORRAD MOTORSPORT AND VAN DER MARK AT BARCELONA
Michael van der Mark (NED) endured a challenging weekend with technical problems and a fall too, before he scored points for finishing 13th in race two during the eighth round of the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) at Barcelona (ESP).
Race one did not go according to plan for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team as Van der Mark retired with a technical issue. The weekend continued with the Superpole race on Sunday morning, which determined the top nine grid positions for race two. Van der Mark suffered more bad luck in this race as he was forced to return the bike to the pits early after a fall. In Race 2 Van der Mark finished 13th to round off a difficult weekend in the points.
Michael van der Mark, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 19 / R01: DNF / SP Race: DNF / R02: 13): “It has been a tough weekend. We’ve had too many issues with the bike and also this morning I had a small crash in the Superpole race. But to be fair, I felt really good and strong in that race. I had to serve a long lap penalty. I did it and had a good pace but unfortunately at T7 I got sucked in and I just had to run off the track and crashed. That was a shame because in the Superpole race, I had a good feeling and a good pace. For race two, we knew the race would be long for the tyres so I saved the rear tyre a bit in the beginning, but from the start I didn’t have a good feeling with the front so I couldn’t push as I did this morning. It was a long race, we knew there was a big drop coming, but unfortunately at the end I had such a big drop that I got passed by two other riders. Not easy, not where I want to be but on the other hand I am happy to do a full race distance because this is what I need.”