VAN DER MARK BREAKS ARAGÓN PODIUM DUCK IN SUPERPOLE RACE
Michael van der Mark took a fine third place finish for the Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team with Rizla in the Tissot Superpole Race, at the fourth round of the FIM Superbike World Championship held at MotorLand Aragón today.
It was the Dutchman’s first podium at the Spanish venue following a quintet of fifth places aboard his Yamaha R1 since 2017. The performance also heralded a step forward for the Pata Yamaha team at the Aragón circuit, who have worked hard to find solutions to prolong tyre life and find grip in the prevailing conditions this weekend.
Van der Mark was then able to start Race 2 from the front row of the grid and quickly pushed through to second place behind eventual race-winner Jonathan Rea. However as grip levels dropped, he found himself unable to hold the position for the full race distance and eventually settled for a strong sixth-place finish.
Michael van der Mark – SPRC: P3 / R2: P6: “I think we can be quite happy with today’s performance, this morning in Warm Up we tried something a little different on the bike and it felt better compared to yesterday. In the Superpole Race I had a lot of fun, there was some good action and I felt strong. I was missing a bit of grip at the end, but I was really happy to finish on the podium for the first time at Aragón.”
“For Race 2, we had a good bike for the long distance and from the start I was really fast and managed to get up to second place. From there, Johnny was a bit too quick to catch! As soon as my grip dropped, I struggled a lot on the exit of the corners and one-by-one people started passing me, so that’s why we finished sixth. Despite this, I think we are going in the right direction. We made some good progress and the best thing is that we have a lot of data from this weekend which we can use for the next one.”