Van der Mark salvages fourth at home

Pata Honda’s Dutch rider Michael van der Mark delivered another impressive ride in this afternoon’s third-round World Supersport race in his home race at Assen in the Netherlands.

The 20-year-old flyer endured set-up issues in preparing for today’s 20-lap race at the historic 4.542km Assen circuit and was able to qualify no higher than 11th. A poor opening lap dropped van der Mark down to 14th in the early stages but he fought back through the pack to take fourth and retain second place overall in the series.

Michael van der Mark – 4th

It was a difficult race because although the start was not too bad I got a few problems at the first corner and in the first few laps I lost too much time. I made some mistakes and had some difficulties with the bike. But after five or six laps I found a way to ride the bike and I kept pushing but there were a lot of guys in front of me by then. I had to overtake them all and the bike was really fast so this made it a little bit more easy. I had some problems with some other riders but when I found my rhythm I was faster than the others and I tried to pass them. I think fourth was the best we could do, even though the team worked really hard all weekend. In the race we didn’t really have the set-up that we wanted but we can be happy with this result. We wanted top five and we got it, but we had to come from a long way back!

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

After the disappointing set-up problems we had on Friday and Saturday we managed to make some good results. With Michael the start was the opposite and he got a bit locked up and lost some places. As the race progressed he caught more and more riders and brought it home in fourth. After the qualifying problems and his resulting grid position, that felt a bit like a podium so we’re quite happy. There’s work to do though, so this upcoming test is important.

2013 World Supersport championship, round three

Assen, Netherlands – 4.542km, 20 laps

Race results:

1 Sam Lowes (GBR) Yamaha

2 Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Kawasaki

3 Fabien Foret (FRA) Kawasaki

4 Michael van der Mark (NED) Pata Honda

5 Florian Marino (FRA) Kawasaki

6 Roberto Rolfo (ITA) MV Agusta

7 Jack Kennedy (IRL) Honda

8 Kevin Coghlan (GBR) Kawasaki

9 A Antonelli (ITA) Kawasaki

10 Lorenzo Zanetti (ITA) Pata Honda

Championship points after three of 14 rounds:

1 Foret 54, 2 van der Mark 49, 3 Lowes 45, 4 Sofuoglu 45, 5 Antonelli 29, 6 Scassa 26, Zanetti 24.

Next round: Monza, Italy – 10-12 May