Provisional Spanish front row for van der Mark

Michael van der Mark maintained his good start to his debut World Supersport season by claiming a provisional front row slot for Sunday’s second round race at Motorland Aragon in Spain.

The 20-year-old Dutch flyer followed up his stunning podium in the opening round at Phillip Island, Australia, with an impressive display as the series returned to Europe. He is just 0.5s off the provisional pole time set by British rider Sam Lowes.

Michael van der Mark – P3, 2m02.524s

Today was not bad. I was quite comfortable doing fast lap times as soon as I went out and in qualifying this afternoon I used three different tyres. I did my fastest time on the tyre that we didn’t expect to be so quick on and then, near the end, I got stuck behind some other riders. The test last week was good and the first day here has gone well, so I think we can go a little faster tomorrow and focus on the race set-up.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

Michael continues to impress us just by riding really well and he has been up with the top guys all day. He held second place for quite a long time this afternoon and in the end he finished third with a time that is already 0.6s faster than during the test last week. He’s stepping up his performance for this race weekend and there are no problems with the bike.

2013 World Supersport championship, round two – Motorland Aragon, Spain

First qualifying results:

1 Sam Lowes (GBR) Yamaha 2m01.930s

2 Sheridan Morais (RSA) Honda 2m02.393s

3 Michael van der Mark (NED) Pata Honda 2.02.524s

4 Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Kawasaki 2m02.557s

5 Luca Scassa (ITA) Kawasaki 2m02.738s

6 Kevin Coghlan (GBR) Kawsaki 2m03.018s

11 Lorenzo Zanetti (ITA) Pata Honda 2m03.524s

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