Van der Mark delights Dutch crowd with Assen victory

[totalmotorcycle]

Van der Mark delights #Dutch crowd with #Assen victory



Pata #Honda’s Michael van der Mark won today’s third round World Supersport race at Assen in the Netherlands today, dominating the 18-lap race to the delight of an ecstatic home crowd.

It was the first World Supersport race win for the 21-year-old Dutch rider and particularly poignant for his team which is based just 70km south of the 4.542km circuit. Following his second place at Aragon last week, van der Mark now moves to second place in the series, just four points off the lead.

Starting from third place on the grid, van der Mark took the lead from Kenan Sofuoglu on lap three and was never headed – putting in a series of remarkably and consistently fast laps, including a new lap record of 1m38.587s, to open up a lead of almost 10 seconds at the flag.

Van der Mark’s Pata Honda team-mate, Lorenzo Zanetti, recovered from an indifferent start to finish fifth in today’s race. The Italian rider sits in eighth place in the championship table ahead of his own home race at Imola in two weeks’ time.



Michael van der Mark - first

That was unbelievable! We’ve been fast all weekend but my start wasn’t really that great. I was third and followed Kenan [Sofuoglu] and Florian [Marino] for the first two laps and saw immediately that I was faster. When I passed Kenan I kept pushing and the race pace was so incredibly fast that I was able to pull away from the guys all through the race. It was the first time I’ve led my home race and I didn’t want to make any mistakes and at the end I won with about nine seconds. The slow-down lap was amazing to see all the Dutch fans waving and yelling at me! It’s incredible to take your first win in front of your home crowd, plus your sponsors, family and friends. I want to thank everyone, including everyone in my team and the Clinica Mobile, because I had a bad fever this morning and they got me ready to race today.





Lorenzo Zanetti - fifth

In the end I think it’s been a positive weekend. Like Portimao, this is one of my weaker circuits so to take fifth is not too bad. I had a little problem with the front tyre from the start. I never any problems with this tyre before but there was a lot of movement. Without this problem, maybe I could have fought with Marino and Sofuoglu, but Mikey [van der Mark] had a really good rhythm this weekend. The whole team has worked really well this weekend though and this is a positive, so it means I can really look forward to Imola. Congratualtions to Mikey, of course. His win is the result of hard work by all the team over the winter, but he rode very well today.





Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

It was a sensational win for Michael which has made everyone very happy. It’s the first time that a Dutch rider from a Dutch team has won a World Supersport race in front of a Dutch crowd at Assen so we are all very glad. He’s been strong all weekend and in the race he was in another class – at times lapping almost a second faster than the guy in second. He brought it home for a day to remember. Lorenzo had a good race, too, and was fighting for third until the end. He had some front tyre issues which stopped him going for the podium but it’s been a very, very good day for the Supersport team.






Weather
Overcast


Air
16°C


Track
15°C


Humidity
65%






Race Results

1 Michael van der Mark 29m47.030s NED HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
2 Florian Marino +9.494s FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
3 Jules Cluzel +14.988s FRA MV MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
4 Kev Coghlan +17.131s GBR YAMAHA DMC Panavto-Yamaha
5 Lorenzo Zanetti +17.430s ITA HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
6 Roberto Rolfo +20.266s ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
7 Roberto Tamburini +21.370s ITA KAWASAKI San Carlo Puccetti Racing
8 Raffaele De Rosa +21.370s ITA HONDA Core PTR Honda
9 Patrick Jacobson +23.557s USA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
10 Kevin Wahr +25.098s GER YAMAHA Team Wahr by Kraus Racing


Championship Standings - Round 3

1 Florian Marino 49 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
2 Michael van der Mark 45 pts NED HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
4 Jules Cluzel 41 pts FRA MV MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
5 Raffaele De Rosa 34 pts ITA HONDA Core PTR Honda
6 Roberto Rolfo 29 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
7 Kenan Sofuoglu 25 pts TUR KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
8 Lorenzo Zanetti 24 pts ITA HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
9 Roberto Rolfo 19 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
10 Kevin Wahr 16 pts GER YAMAHA Team Wahr by Kraus Racing