Michael van der Mark surprised everyone by beating home favourites Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes
Dutch rider Michael van der Mark defied all the odds and came away from Donington Park with two victories on the World Superbike round in England. This was the first time since 2012 that a non-British rider had won at this track, but Van der Mark was in top form and got two wins for the PATA Yamaha squad.
Michael van der Mark is now also the first Dutch rider to have ever won a race in World Superbike top class, and for his Yamaha team the victory in Race 1 meant that the Japanese manufacturer returned to the top spot on the podium for the first time since a Yamaha rider won a race in World SBK back in 2011.
In Race 1, Michael van der Mark had to battle it out with Kawasaki Racing Team duo of Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes – who got the Superpole and new record lap -, and even though Rea tried everything to get the win, Van der Mark simply didn’t make any mistakes leaving second place for Rea, with Sykes closing the podium.
In Race 2 the young Dutch had a more difficult mission: he started from ninth on the grid and had all his biggest rivals in front.
The Kawasaki duo couldn’t stop Michael van der Mark to get two wins at Donington
But Michael van der Mark showed, once again, that he is becoming very good a reading how the race develops, and lap after lap the Yamaha rider climbed the order, avoiding mistakes that could put him out of contention.
With some drops of rain falling in Donington, the race pace went down a bit and Michael had the chance to get even closer to the front guys Alex Lowes and Jonathan Rea. With the three already together and fighting for the win, Rea made the first attack, passed Lowes and tried to escape in front, but Michael van der Mark wasn’t going to let that happen and also passed Lowes.
A couple of laps later he did the same to Rea, and from then on the Dutchman never gave his pursuers a chance to fightback, and secured his second win of the weekend.
Behind Michael van der Mark, another surprise: Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Toprak Razgatlioglu became the first Turkish rider on the podium of a World Superbike race, and he did it in his rookie year!
The Pedercini Kawasaki rider showed an impressive late race pace, and surprised everyone in the final laps. He passed Alex Lowes first to take third position and with one lap to go he managed to overcome the reigning champion Jonathan Rea for second spot! An impressive result for the first Turkish rider ever to reach the podium in World Superbike.
Having been passed by Toprak, Jonathan Rea couldn’t answer to the attack of his fellow Kawasaki rider and settled for third in Race 2, his worst result since the Thai round in the beginning of the season.In the championship standings Jonathan Rea, even if he didn’t win this time, is still the undisputed leader with a total of 245 points, the Aruba.it Ducati rider Chaz Davies also didn’t have a good weekend finishing off the podium in both races, but holds on to second in the standings with 182 points, while tied in third with Tom Sykes is now Michael van der Mark, both with 163 points.
In two weeks’ time the World Superbike will continue with the Czech round at Brno.