Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) made a long-awaited return to the top step of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship with victory in Race 1 at the Motul French Round. He timed his switch to full wet tyres to perfection at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours and, despite pressure from Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), held on to claim BMW’s 14 win in a row.
The Dutchman started from fifth place on the grid using Pirelli’s front SC1 and rear SCX tyres, using that to great effect in the drier parts of the race. With the rain coming down even harder, van der Mark opted to switch his slicks for the full wet tyres on Lap 4 and came out with Lowes, who had pitted on the same lap. The duo were fighting over second place as Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) had opted to stay out on his intermediate tyres but he crashed from P1 at Turn 7 on Lap 7, handing the lead to Lowes and van der Mark.
Van der Mark was running in P2 when his former Yamaha teammate crashed at Turn 13, handing van der Mark the lead by almost 10 seconds ahead of Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), who started from 17th and pitted a lap earlier than the BMW star. It meant van der Mark’s wait for a podium and win ended as he came home in first place, 1070 days on from his last win at Portimao in a wet Tissot Superpole Race.
Discussing his win, van der Mark said: “It feels unreal. It’s been a tough couple of years. I think this year’s been going better and better, and my goal was to be on the podium. To win here is fantastic. I made the wrong decision! We agreed with the team that as soon as it started raining, I’d come into pit. I was behind Alex, and if you see him going, you think you can do another one. I think I should’ve come in earlier. When it was raining and I was on slicks, it was very, very tricky. This is what was flag-to-flag racing is all about and, after that, I didn’t make a mistake. It was nice but a tough race.”
Van der Mark’s win came off the back of a victory streak of 13 races for the German manufacturer, but all of those – and, in fact, all of BMW’s podiums this season – had come from Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). With ‘El Turco’ ruled out of action after his Free Practice 2 crash, van der Mark continued BMW’s winning streak in style as he took his first win in more than 1,000 days and his first full-length win since 2019.
Giving BMW’s immediate reaction, van der Mark’s Crew Chief, Marcus Eschenbacher said in the pit lane: “It’s perfect him. He did a super job; the team did a super job. Thanks to Toprak’s side, the team is unbelievable and we, altogether, brought him back. Step by step, we’ll see him strong. It’s perfect. Michael is good in the wet and he’s back to the sort of level of 2021 again.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com