DOUBLE TOP 10 FOR VAN DER MARK AT NAVARRA
BMW Motorrad Motorsport has rounded off the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) race weekend at Navarra (ESP). In the Superpole race Michael van der Mark improved from tenth on the grid to ninth and moved up to seventh for a while, before losing a place and crossing the line in eighth position.
Sunday saw a repeat of the previous day’s high temperatures and the start of race two was delayed by ten minutes after a rider experienced some issues on the grid. The lights went out at 14:10. After a hard-fought first lap, Sykes and van der Mark had moved up from sixth and eighth into fourth and fifth positions. However, Andrea Locatelli (ITA, Yamaha) was able to pass van der Mark on lap three and overtook Sykes one lap later. That put Sykes in fifth place, and he maintained that top five position to the finish line after 22 laps. Van der Mark was seventh for a large part of the race, but lost a place in the closing stages and took the chequered flag in eighth position. After the race, van der Mark was demoted by one place for exceeding track limits on the final lap.
Navarra hosted the seventh round of the 2021 WorldSBK season. The racing continues in two weeks at Magny-Cours, France, from 3rd to 5th September.
Michael: “It was a tough Sunday. In this morning’s Superpole race I struggled quite a lot with the front end of the bike. I just couldn’t attack anyone or stay with anyone so I was a bit disappointed but anyway, I gained a few starting positions for race two. I then had a good start but I immediately felt that I was losing at the exits compared to the others so I tried to push more on the front but I didn’t feel good and it was quite a long and tough race. We need to improve that but at least we got some points, we always keep trying and I am looking forward to Magny-Cours now.”