Michael van der Mark battles for Imola points

Michael van der Mark finished in fifth place respectively in today’s seventh round World Supersport race at Imola in Italy.

The shortened 14-lap race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, which had to be restarted after an oil spillage caused the first part to be red-flagged, was won by Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu.

Van der Mark had an eventful race, starting from 10th place on the grid the 20-year-old Dutch ace had fought his way up to fourth before he almost crashed on the oil spill. With a better grid position for part two, he was always in contention but front tyre problems restricted his progress.

Michael van der Mark – 5th

The first start was OK and I was in a group that would be fighting for the podium. I felt that I could go faster than the others and I was waiting because my pace was better. Then we got an oil flag but it was on top of a hill so I could not see where the problem was. The others went through OK so I figured it wasn’t too bad but then I hit it and I lost the rear. I though “OK, this is going to hurt”, but I was able to save it. I have no idea how! In the restart I was riding in third place and had a good feeling but I pushed too hard on the front and lost two places. I couldn’t go any faster so I stayed safe for fifth. I’m happy for that, and the good points I got, but a little unhappy that I wasn’t able to fight for the podium in the restart.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

Both guys had quite a good warm-up this morning and we found some setting improvements. Michael was lucky not to crash on the oil that caused the red flag, and then we had a shortened race. It looked like Michael was pushing for a podium but his front tyre started to drop a bit and he dropped to fifth, which was a good result. Lorenzo’s fourth was also a positive finish, and they stand fourth and fifth in the championship. We didn’t get them on the podium but, all in all, it was not a bad weekend.

2013 World Supersport championship, round seven

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola Italy – 4.936km, 14 laps

Race result:

1 Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Kawasaki

2 Sam Lowes (GBR) Yamaha

3 Vladimir Leonov (RUS) Yamaha

4 Lorenzo Zanetti (ITA) Pata Honda

5 Michael van der Mark (NED) Pata Honda

6 Luca Scassa (ITA) Kawasaki

Championship points after seven of 14 rounds:

1 Lowes 140, 2 Sofuoglu 106, 3 Fabien Foret (FRA) Kawasaki 85, 4 van der Mark 73, 5 Zanetti 68, 6 Scassa 63.

Next round: Moscow Raceway, Russia – 19-21 July