POSITIVE CONCLUSION TO PATA YAMAHA’S ARGENTINE ADVENTURE
Pata Yamaha WorldSBK rider, Michael van der Mark, took a hard fought fourth place finish in today’s WorldSBK Race 2 at Circuito San Juan Villicum in Argentina, having caught and passed yesterday’s race winner, Alvaro Bautista, with just four laps of the race remaining. With Alex Lowes finishing in sixth position this afternoon, the Pata Yamaha teammates are now separated by just a single point in the championship standings, with Lowes currently holding the advantage in third place.
Van der Mark started today’s 21-lap WorldSBK Race 2 from the second row of the grid, having finished this morning’s Superpole Sprint Race in sixth. The two Pata Yamaha riders made a good start and, while both were quick to find their rhythm, neither had the outright pace needed to compete for the podium today.
Lowes rode a solid but lonely race to sixth place, lacking the additional pace needed to close the gap to Van der Mark ahead of him. Michael managed to find a little bit extra in the closing stages of the race to catch and pass Bautista for fourth place, but the gap to the podium contenders was insurmountable in the few laps remaining.
Michael van der Mark: Pata Yamaha WorldSBK – P4 – Championship P4 – 304 Points: “If you look at the results then it’s not been too bad here in Argentina. It’s been a difficult weekend for everyone, I think, but fourth place yesterday was a good start for me. In the Superpole Race this morning I didn’t really have a good feeling and I struggled a bit with the bike, but we made quite a big change for Race 2 and I felt a lot stronger from the start. Of course there were some areas where I’d have liked to be a little better but, anyway, I picked up another fourth place on a track that proved difficult for us last year, so we must be happy with these points and now look forward to Qatar, where I’m sure we will be even stronger and able to fight for the podium once again.”
Results
Superpole Race
Race 2