Honda Racing’s Michael van der Mark ended the first day of track action at Magny-Cours sixth fastest and progresses through to SP2 despite losing the entirety of FP1 to an mechanical fault.
The Ducth rider was forced to watch FP1 from the sidelines after his CBR1000RR Honda developed an engine problem which couldn’t be fixed in time to get him out at all during the one hour session. Van der Mark still made productive use of his time, though, heading out track-side to learn how his competitors were taking the 4.4km French circuit.
The team managed to get his bike fixed in time for the second session, and after a change in set-up on the rear-end of his Honda, Van der Mark began to push for some quick lap times. In the end, he managed a 1m38.384s to go sixth quickest and only half a second off of Chaz Davies at the top of the time sheets.
Even though he has just one hour of track time under his belt at Magny-Cours so far, the Dutch rider is satisfied with his day’s work, finding that his Honda is allowing him to ride it the way he wants.
“It was a good day overall, despite losing the whole FP1 with a technical problem that couldn’t be fixed in time. I was really disappointed, but instead of waiting I decided to take my scooter and have a look at the other riders from the other side of the fence, and I surely managed to learn something from that,” he said.
“This afternoon we decided to make a big change to the rear of the bike and that worked out perfectly. We made a big step forward and I was able to ride the bike the way I wanted. I was happy because we also found some consistency despite the lack of time. In the end we’re not too far behind and, of course, the most important thing is that we were able to qualify for Superpole 2.”
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