STRONG FIFTH PLACE FINISH FOR VAN DER MARK AT ARAGON
Michael van der Mark has scored an impressive fifth place in the first of the two FIM Motul World Superbike Championship races this weekend at MotorLand Aragon. Van der Mark’s first European Superpole session of the 2017 season showed also a further display of his consistent weekend pace in Spain. The Dutchman gradually chipping away at the lap times to deliver a 1’50.422 and secure seventh on the grid. He then made an impressively aggressive start to the race, holding his own in the pack and pushing on to chase Xavi Forés and secure fifth position, only one place behind his teammate Alex Lowes.
The race results deliver a double Yamaha front row start for tomorrow’s second Aragon WorldSBK race; Alex takes pole position with Michael in a promising second spot.
Michael van der Mark – 5th, +12.302s: “I think of course you want to beat your teammate but it’s really positive that we are close together again. It was a nice race, we found a couple of tenths compared to yesterday which is good and finishing fifth and fourth is something really good for the team, it shows progress. Of course I’m not happy finishing fifth but I’m happy we are making good progress with the R1 and as I said yesterday I’m feeling so much better on the bike since the first time I came here to test. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, we are both on the front row so it’s going to be really interesting.”
Results
Superpole