HIGHS AND LOWS FOR THE BMW MOTORRAD WORLDSBK TEAM AT SATURDAY’S WORLDSBK RACE IN ESTORIL
The second round of the 2021 FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) season is taking place in Estoril, Portugal. It was a Saturday of highs and lows for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. In race one, Michael van der Mark (NED) worked his way up to seventh place with his BMW M 1000 RR. His team-mate Tom Sykes (GBR) secured 14th position.
In the morning, Sykes claimed fifth place on the grid in Superpole qualification, van der Mark was classified 12th. In the race, van der Mark showed a consistent performance and was able to make gradual progress after starting from 12th. He reached seventh position by the halfway point of the race and was able to maintain this until the chequered flag.
“We lost some valuable track time again this morning, so that was not how we wanted to start the day. But anyway, in Superpole I felt good; I improved my lap time and then in qualifying I had really good first three sectors, but then the tyre was gone so I could not gain any time in the last sector. That was a pity because that meant starting initially from P14, which was then P12. I had a really good start and the race was my first long run this weekend. I was surprised by the pace I had and with the consistency of the bike. I am happy with this position, but I am happier with the consistency we had and also when I changed some electronics during the race. We took a really good step forward. I am happy with P7 but even more about the whole pace.”