Van der Mark battles for Silverstone points

Michael van der Mark had to battle hard for points in today’s ninth round World Supersport race at Silverstone in the UK, which was won by Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu.

Starting from sixth place on the grid, 20-year-old van der Mark got a steady start and had climbed to fifth before his Honda CBR600RR touched another rider’s machine, forcing the Dutch ace off the track at the fast Copse corner.

Van der Mark re-joined the race in 22nd position but showed impressive pace and control to pass many riders on his way back to the top ten.

Michael van der Mark – 9th

I made a stupid mistake when I had good pace and we could have been fighting for the podium. I am really sorry for the mistake, but the pace was great and we had found a good direction with the bike this weekend. I was really angry when I rejoined the race and I was really fast in this part. I hope that we can be back on the podium at the next race in Nurburgring.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

Michael had terrific pace but went off the track after a little mistake. He was passing a lot of people and doing really fast lap times after that, when he was as fast as the two guys at the front. The speed was there to take him to the podium but we’ll have to take what happened and try again in Germany.