Michael van der Mark took the third podium of his rookie World Superbike championship season today, taking his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to third place in the first race of round 11 of the series at Jerez in Spain. The race was won by Tom Sykes.
Starting from fourth place on the grid, van der Mark dropped a position going into turn one but never lost touch with the leaders. By mid-race, the 22-year-old had passed Jonathan Rea, who finished fourth to secure the 2015 World Superbike championship title.
It was van der Mark’s first podium since he doubled up at Assen in the Netherlands in April and in this afternoon’s second race he looked to be on his way to another double podium. He had fought his way up to fourth place and was challenging Leon Haslam for the final podium position when he crashed unhurt at turn six.
Van der Mark was able to right his lightly-damaged CBR and re-join the race, matching the lap times of eventual winner, Chaz Davies. The Dutch rider finished in 13th place to consolidate seventh place in the overall championship standings.
Pata Honda team-mate Sylvain Guintoli, meanwhile, was unable to match the pace of van der Mark in today’s two races. The French rider finished 10th in race one and 9th in the second 20-lap outing at the 4.423km Jerez circuit.
The Pata Honda team will remain at Jerez for a one-day official test tomorrow before heading back to the workshop in the Netherlands to prepare for the penultimate round of the season at Magny-Cours in France on 2 October.
Michael van der Mark - 3rd and 13th
All weekend I’ve had some difficulties with the clutch, so the start in race one was not perfect. I managed to stay with the guys even though I was missing some grip at the beginning. As the pace dropped a little I was able to close the gap but I had to wait a little more before I could pass Leon [Haslam] and Jonathan [Rea]. I tried to close the gap to Chaz [Davies] but the grip was not there. Race two was a little bit similar at the beginning and I closed the gap to the front as the pace began to drop. I had a good feeling when I got to the back of Torres and Haslam so I was holding back a little bit because I saw they were pushing really hard. Then I just lost the front in a slow corner and crashed. I was able to get back on and do some good lap times before the end of the race and I think overall I must be happy with the performance this weekend. We finally had a weekend without problems and that’s really good for my motivation, and of course the podium is great motivation for the whole team.
Sylvain Guintoli - 10th and 9th
It’s been a difficult Sunday. I thought we could have done a bit better than this, to be honest, but it was a bit of a struggle. I was trying really hard in the races and maybe that wasn’t the best thing. I just lost my mojo a bit and didn’t feel comfortable. The feeling was not good and the pace wasn’t there so it’s been a very difficult Sunday. We need to have a sit down to put it back together. Hopefully it will be a different story at Magny-Cours; it’s a track I really like and I want to finish the season strongly so I’ll reflect on what happened here and why I was so slow and try to understand how to pick it back up.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
Sylvain struggled a little today. We made some changes on the bike which didn’t really work out and he wasn’t able to get into a rhythm in either race. It’s a shame because on Friday everything was looking quite good, but he wasn’t able to show his full potential today. The next round is at Magny-Cours though, and we know he’ll be back then. Michael showed really good pace all weekend and his qualifying performance yesterday gave him the boost he needed to race for the podium. It’s the first podium for him and the team since Assen and it makes us really happy, especially here at Jerez, which has not been a good circuit for us in the past. In race two Michael was challenging again but, even after his crash, he was able to put in some impressive lap times, matching those of the race winn er. Overall it was a good weekend for Michael and it’s good that he has been able to show his potential along with that of the team and the CBR.
