PATA HONDA SUPERBIKE MOTORCYCLE RACING – VAN DER MARK MAINTAINS MOMENTUM IN MISANO

Michael van der Mark set the second-fastest overall time in today’s two World Supersport practice sessions in preparation for Sunday’s seventh-round championship race at the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ in Italy.

The 21-year-old Pata Honda rider from Rotterdam in the Netherlands fired his Honda CBR600RR around the 4.226km Misano circuit in a time of 1m39.777s, just 0.1s behind provisional pole sitter Jules Cluzel.

Van der Mark’s Pata Honda team-mate Lorenzo  Zanetti recovered from a difficult morning session, which included a small crash, to record the fifth fastest time overall today. The 26-year-old Italian is confident of further improvement ahead of tomorrow afternoon’s qualifying session.

Michael van der Mark – P2

The first day was quite OK and we were immediately quite fast this morning. I didn’t have agood feeling with the setting though and we changed a lot this afternoon which gave me amuch better feeling. We struggled a little to improve the time but at the end we tried somedifferent rear tyres and I improved. I’m happy with that but we still have some work to dobecause I am missing some grip, but I’m sure we can improve tomorrow.

Lorenzo Zanetti – P5

This afternoon was better than this morning when I had a strange feeling on the bike whichI think affected all riders. The track was dirty but I wasn’t able to improve because of astupid crash which wasn’t my fault. A slower rider was on the outside of turn eight where Itook my line and just he moved right across. I hurt my right hand a little but it’s not too badand not broken. We worked immediately to improve the setting for this afternoon and it wasbetter. We tried the new tyre that Pirelli brought for the weekend and also simulated a racedistance. I finished fifth; the rhythm is not too bad and the first six riders are very close. Ingeneral, it’s positive because we found a way and I hope we can continue that tomorrowand aim for a front row in qualifying.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator
This morning Michael was fastest and started really well, which he continued thisafternoon. Lorenzo was a little behind in the first session, but at the end of the day hemade quite a good step and there are only a few tenths in it. Both guys are in the ball-parkso we’ll see what more we can do tomorrow.

Free Practice Results