VAN DER MARK CONFIDENT AS WSBK RETURNS TO EUROPE
After the opening two rounds in Australia and Thailand, round three of the 2015 World Superbike championship sees Pata Honda rider Michael van der Mark return to Europe for this weekend’s third-round encounter at Motorland Aragon near Alcaniz in Spain. The 5.077km Hermann Tilke-designed Aragon circuit features a revised, shorter layout for WSBK’s return, eliminating the tight hairpin at the end of the long back straight and instead utilising the faster left-hander used in MotoGP to bring the riders back on to the start-finish straight.
Michael van der Mark: “I really like the track at Aragon because it has a great mix of fast-flowing corners and tighter, technical sections. I think it will improve with the faster left at the end of the straight instead of the hairpin. I certainly enjoyed riding it when we tested in January but the weather was really cold so we couldn’t achieve very much. I’m quite happy with my performances over my first few races in World Superbikes. Thailand was great but the first round in Australia was really good and I’m hoping for the same feeling this weekend in Aragon. We knew that my rookie season would be about learning new things and that it would have some ups and downs, but so far I think we are more or less in the place that we expected to be.”