MILESTONE AT PORTIMÃO: MICHAEL VAN DER MARK RECORDS FIRST WIN FOR THE BMW MOTORRAD WORLDSBK TEAM ON THE BMW M 1000 RR
The chequered flag for the Superpole race on Sunday morning at Portimão (POR) was greeted with boundless celebrations in the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team pit area. Michael van der Mark (NED) won the race on his BMW M 1000 RR and the team celebrated the first win for BMW Motorrad Motorsport since returning to the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK). The result marks the next important milestone for the project. Dr. Markus Schramm, Head of BMW Motorrad, was at Portimão for the race weekend and was the first to offer his congratulations.
Van der Mark was already on fast form during the rainy warm-up session, posting the best time on Sunday morning. The rain had stopped in time for the Superpole race but the circuit had not dried out. Starting from fifth on the grid, van der Mark had already moved up to third by the end of lap one. He then passed Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR / Yamaha) and moved into second place on lap two. On the next lap, he left Scott Redding (GBR / Ducati) behind to take the lead. Van der Mark never looked likely to surrender his lead, claiming the long-awaited first win after ten laps – fully 5.330 seconds ahead of his rivals.
Having won the Superpole race, van der Mark started the afternoon’s second race from pole position. That race took place in sunny conditions on a dry surface. However, a technical issue prevented him from mounting a real attack and he completed the second race in sixth place.
Michael: “Yeah, it was a pretty good day. Of course, this morning it was nice to get a win with the BMW M1000 RR. It was a good race and I already felt good in the rain from this morning, and this carried through into the race, even when it started to dry, I still had a good feeling on the bike. I’m happy to take the win for BMW Motorrad and the whole team. Race 2 I didn’t get a good start, but I felt I had good pace but unfortunately with had some issues which cost me a lot of time and then my race from there was a bit lonely as I couldn’t catch up the guys in front. We have to learn, but at the end it was not a bad Sunday.”