Front row in sultry Sepang for van der Mark

[totalmotorcycle]

Front row in sultry @Sepang for van der Mark



Michael van der Mark will start tomorrow’s sixth-round World Supersport championship race from the front row of the grid after setting the third-fastest lap time in this afternoon’s qualifying session at Sepang in Malaysia.

The 21-year-old Pata Honda rider from Rotterdam in the Netherlands lapped the 5.548km circuit in a time of 2m08.961s – a little more than half a second off the pole position time of French rider Jules Cluzel.

However, having completed a race simulation in this morning’s third free practice session, series leader van der Mark has confidence in the race pace of his Pata Honda CBR600RR machine.

His Pata Honda team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti will start from the second row of the grid after a determined effort at the end of this afternoon’s hot qualifying session with track temperatures hovering around 60˚C.

With a margin of just 0.058s, the Italian rider, 26, nudged Malaysian wildcard rider Zaqhwan Zaidi off the second row on his final lap. However, it was an impressive qualifying performance from the 19-year-old, who will start from the head of the third row on a Honda CBR600RR prepared by the Ten Kate Racing Products team from Pata Honda’s base in the Netherlands.




Michael van der Mark - P3, 2m08.961s

Yes, I’m really happy now I’ve had a chance to cool down! Qualifying actually didn’t go exactly to plan because we had a little issue on the bike and I was not able to get out at the beginning of the session. But the guys solved the problem quickly and I had some tyres to try to do some fast laps. I did some, and I think I could have done better, but I got held up many times by other riders. This morning in free practice we showed that we had a really good race pace and I’m pretty confident that tomorrow we can aim for the podium.





Lorenzo Zanetti - P6, 2m09.494s

I am not too disappointed with the second row because normally I am not really fast in qualifying. The front two rows are important for tomorrow, but even more important is that we have found a good way and a good solution. Yesterday and this morning I was losing a lot of time on corner exit, but the team found a good setting and this is positive for tomorrow’s race and my rhythm, and I’m very happy about this. Sure in the last few minutes today some riders were a little crazy but maybe the heat affected them a little. But the second row is good for me because, after not finishing at Donington, when I was fighting for another win, I want to fight again tomorrow.





Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

Third place for Michael is fine because his race pace is looking quite strong and I think he can be one of the podium candidates again. Lorenzo struggled a bit this morning and he was not so happy, so we made some changes for the afternoon. These gave him back a bit of confidence and he’s in good spirits and looking forward to tomorrow. I must also congratulate the Ten Kate Racing Products team and the wildcard rider, Zaqhwan Zaidi. He has shown good speed in the practice sessions and is in seventh place on the grid as the third highest Honda rider. To perform like that at world championship level is a really good achievement and we all wish him the best of luck for the race tomorrow.






Weather
Sunny Intervals


Air
35°C


Track
57°C


Humidity
61%






Qualifying Results

1 Jules Cluzel 2m08.331s FRA MV MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport
2 Kev Coghlan 2m08.424s GBR YAMAHA DMC Panavto-Yamaha
3 Michael van der Mark 2m08.961s NED HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
4 Kenan Sofuoglu 2m08.977s TUR KAWASAKI MAHI Racing Team India
5 Roberto Rolfo 2m09.134s ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
6 Lorenzo Zanetti 2m09.494s ITA HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
7 Zaqhwan Zaidi 2m09.552s MAS HONDA SIC Racing Team
8 Patrick Jacobson 2m09.580s USA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
9 Jack Kennedy 2m09.613s IRL HONDA CIA Insurance Honda
10 Ratthapark Wilairot 2m09.707s THA HONDA Core PTR Honda