The Honda WorldSBK Team has completed the Riviera di Rimini round of the World Superbike Championship by taking part in Sunday’s race two at the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ in Italy. Nicky Hayden and Michael van der Mark finished the second encounter of the weekend in sixth and tenth places, respectively.
Hayden did not enjoy the best of starts from sixth place on the grid and was running in ninth in the early stages. As the laps went by, the experienced American gradually found a better feeling with his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to join the five-way battle for fifth. In the latter part of the race, he was able to make his way up to sixth and ultimately missed a fifth-place finish by only 0.124secs at the line.
Michael van der Mark got a great launch from row four and was sixth on the opening lap of the encounter. Unfortunately for the young Dutchman, there was nothing he could do to avoid the sliding Ducati of Chaz Davies on lap three, when the Welshman fell in front of him at turn 14. Van der Mark was able to re-join the race in twenty-second place and did his utmost up to recover as many positions as possible before the chequered flag, eventually crossing the line in tenth. Despite the setback, the 2014 World Supersport Champion displayed a very competitive pace throughout race, which was on par with the leaders.
Round nine of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship will take place at Laguna Seca in the United States of America in three weeks’ time.
Nicky Hayden 696thAfter Saturday’s disappointment I was hoping to bounce back with a better performance. I got an OK start but in turns one, two, three and four I ended up being out of place and not aggressive enough so I got shuffled back through the field. But then I started to feel better on the bike despite running off-track at turn one at one stage. From then on my pace improved a little and, if I want to take a positive out of the race, I did my fastest time on lap 19. It was a little too late: I closed down on Savadori on the last lap after I got past Torres. Sixth is surely not a disaster but definitely not something to be too pumped about either. I’m a little bit disappointed with my performance today and I’ll try to make up for it in Laguna.
Michael van der Mark 6010thThis morning we tried some different things with the set-up but due to the cold temperatures we couldn’t really get any real information on it so we decided to revert back to yesterday’s settings, with some little tweaks here and there. I got a good start, although I got held up a little in the first two turns after what happened yesterday and that cost me some places. I then took them all back in the following turns and settled into a nice rhythm, until Chaz crashed in front of me. It was a weird one, because it was really early in the race. I picked my bike up immediately because I knew there were a lot of laps left and then just went as fast as I could. Considering the circumstances, tenth is a good result but a frustrating one, too, because I had a great pace. Without that setback, I think it would have been another podium for us.
Pieter Breddels Technical ManagerNicky was quite fast in warm up and his set-up looked good for the race, but unfortunately his start was not as quick as yesterday’s. He eventually found the pace and felt comfortable with the bike. It wasn’t easy for him to overtake but in the end he was the most competitive of the riders battling from fifth to eighth places. He couldn’t quite make it to P5 in the end, but I think with a better first half he could have been fighting for a higher position. We worked on some different damper settings with Michael but the cold warm up didn’t give us any clear indication. Tyre choice for both riders has been a bit of a gamble, too, because we knew the track was warming up but nobody really knew how warm it was going to be. It's a shame for Michael’s result, especially because there was nothing he could do to avoid someone else’s accident. He was great in not losing concentration and his pace was simply amazing, and certainly as fast as the front-runners. With today’s performance, he has definitely proved that he is back where he belongs. Despite what could have been, we must be happy with the work done this weekend. In 2015 we were fighting for the top ten, and now we have managed to get on the podium. Hopefully we will carry some of this momentum into the next round.
