Van der Mark relishing the heat of Sepang challenge

[totalmotorcycle]

Van der Mark relishing the heat of #Sepang challenge



World Supersport championship leader Michael van der Mark set the fourth fastest overall time in today’s two free practice sessions on his Pata Honda CBR600RR at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

Jules Cluzel took the honour of top spot in today’s combined times thanks to his time from this morning, but it was Pata Honda’s van der Mark who led the way in the hotter second practice session at the 5.548km circuit.

The 21-year-old Dutch pilot is riding at Sepang for the first time but set a best of 2m09.575s in a hot second session this afternoon, with track temperatures in the mid-50s.

His Pata Honda team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti was ninth fastest overall in today’s two sessions but is confident of improvement tomorrow in Free Practice 3, followed by a 45-minute qualifying session for Sunday’s 14-lap race.




Michael van der Mark - P4, 2m09.575s

It’s a really nice track – quite difficult and bumpy in places, but I’m really enjoying it! This morning I followed Lorenzo [Zanetti] for a few laps because he has some experience here; then, on my own, I was able to keep improving and finished the first session in fourth position. It was OK but we had some work to do on the set-up this afternoon, when it was really hot with the track above fifty degrees. We lost a lot of grip and struggled a bit with the settings, but at the end we found a small step and I was able to improve my morning lap time. I’m really happy with the first day – we’re are really fast for the first visit here, and my feeling with the CBR is quite OK.





Lorenzo Zanetti - P9, 2m09.980s

This morning the start was not too bad and when I went for a fast time about three minutes before the end, many riders followed me and got the tow, so they went faster. But I was only half a second to the front and everything was under control, I thought. This afternoon was a bit disappointing with the hotter temperatures when it is really difficult to improve the lap time. I tried the softer tyre which gave some other riders an advantage but it didn’t work for me and was spinning a lot, so we need to check the data. I don’t know if it was a problem with the tyre, but we will try some other things tomorrow to check.





Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

The grip levels were quite low today and it was worse this afternoon. Michael was fastest in that session, though, and it’s looking OK for him. Lorenzo struggled a little more with the lack of grip and we have to improve things there and come up with some ideas for tomorrow.






Weather
Sunny Intervals


Air
32°C


Track
53°C


Humidity
65%






Free Practice Results - Combined results

1 Jules Cluzel 2m09.423s FRA MV MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
2 Ratthapark Wilairot 2m09.467s THA HONDA Core PTR Honda
3 Florian Marino 2m09.548s FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
4 Michael van der Mark 2m09.575s NED HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
5 Kenan Sofuoglu 2m09.740s TUR KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
6 Roberto Rolfo 2m09.821s ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
7 Kev Coghlan 2m09.860s GBR YAMAHA DMC Panavto-Yamaha
8 Patrick Jacobson 2m09.915s USA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
9 Lorenzo Zanetti 2m09.980s ITA HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
10 Raffaele De Rosa 2m10.345 ITA HONDA Core PTR Honda