VAN DER MARK COMPLETE ITALIAN ROUND WITH TOP-10 FINISH
The fifth round of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship has drawn to a close at Imola’s ‘Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari’, with Honda WorldSBK Team rider Michael van der Mark in 9th place at the end of race two in Italy. Van der Mark spent the majority of the encounter on the edge of the top 10 and was able to make up a couple of positions in the final laps, crossing the line 1.4secs behind his teammate. With five rounds completed, Michael van der Mark sits fourth in the championship standings, while Nicky Hayden is seventh. The next round of the World Superbike championship will take place in Malaysia at the Sepang International Circuit on May 13–15.
Michael van der Mark (9th): “It’s been a really difficult weekend. It looked like we found the right direction yesterday in Superpole but today we thought that, with a different tyre, we would have solved the issues encountered yesterday. Unfortunately during race two I found it really hard to change direction and this meant that I could neither be quick nor build any sort of rhythm. Now we have to look forward to Sepang, which is a completely different track. I’m pretty confident that the team and I will be able to bounce back and score some great results there.”