VAN DER MARK AND HAYDEN BATTLE HARD IN RACE TWO AT DONINGTON
Round seven of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship has come to an end with the second race of the weekend at Donington Park, which saw the Honda WorldSBK duo of Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden finishing in eighth and sixth positions, respectively. Van der Mark’s race was once again affected by his twelfth-place grid position; the Dutchman found himself battling for eighth place with Joshua Brookes and Cameron Beaubier, eventually getting the better of both opponents. In the final stages of the encounter, Van der Mark’s pace was not too far from the front-runners, although he was not able to close on Davide Giugliano for seventh.
Michael van der Mark (8th): “It has been another difficult race for me, in all ways similar to the one I had yesterday. I was able to make a couple of places at the start but I got stuck again in the battle for eighth with Brookes and Beaubier. I was eventually able to pass them and stay ahead, but it definitely wasn’t easy. Our starting position surely didn’t help, but we wouldn’t have had the pace anyway to battle for the top 5. There’s still a lot of work to do and we will start with Misano. Hopefully next week’s test there will help us find the solution to the problems I have been experiencing lately.”