Michael van der Mark continued the impressive finish to his debut World Superbike championship by taking his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to two top five finishes in today’s final races of the 2015 season at Losail in Qatar.
The races were won by Jordi Torres and Leon Haslam but, starting from ninth place on the grid for both 17-lap outings, van der Mark was able to maintain the superb pace he had shown in the opening three free practice sessions, taking fifth place in race one and improving to fourth in race two.
It was only when the grip from his rear tyre began to drop off in both outings that the 22-year-old Dutch ace was forced to reduce his pace but, with a points haul of 80 points from the final seven races of the season, van der Mark retains seventh place in the 2015 WSBK championship standings.
For his team-mate Sylvain Guintoli the Qatar races marked his final World Superbike outings on the CBR. The French rider suffered from technical problems during free practice and qualifying and started tonight’s floodlit races at the 5.380km Losail circuit from 13th on the grid.
Guintoli was able to improve on his grid position to take tenth place in race one but enjoyed a much more positive second encounter, matching the lap times of the leading riders and eventually crossing the line in fifth place, behind his Honda team-mate, but ahead of van der Mark in sixth place in the championship points table.
Michael van der Mark - 5th and 4th
The weekend has been great after we started really well on Friday. The CBR felt good and the pace was strong and we were able to improve on Saturday, except in Superpole, which wasn’t so good. Tonight in race one I didn’t have the same grip as the other guys in the early laps so I had to push hard and that used up the tyres too quickly but I was able to finish in fifth. For race two we changed the bike a little bit and the pace of the front guys wasn’t as fast as in race one. I had the same kind of pace as those guys and I could stay with them but I couldn’t really get past. I kept pushing but in the last few laps the tyres were completely gone. I’m happy with two solid results for the end of the season and looking forward to start work for 2016 during testing next month.
Sylvain Guintoli - 10th and 5th
It was a tough last weekend but there were definitely some positives. In the middle of race two we had a good pace, similar to the guys at the front, and that felt quite good. But we had some issues with the bike during Friday and Saturday unfortunately so it’s been a difficult weekend. At least in race two, despite a bad start, I was able to claw my way closer to the front and the pace was quite good. We changed a lot after race one – went for the softer tyre, changed the gearing and the swing arm length. But I got stuffed a bit into the first corner and then did my best lap mid-race. The weekend has been a reflection of the whole season really: we’ve had some good moments but some struggles too. In the end we stuck together as a team and worked really hard on three sides – the team, Honda and my self – and I’m happy with that.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
Sylvain started in the middle of the pack in race one but wasn’t able to get into some really good lap times. In the second race he got into a good rhythm and matched the pace of the front riders which took him away from the second group for fifth place. It was a great effort after the problems earlier in the weekend and we wish him all the best in his new adventure for 2016. Michael had really good pace all weekend but we put some used tyres in for warm-up and that didn’t really work. He got a reasonable start in race one but had to settle for fifth spot. He was in the front group for race two though and had really good pace. But lap-by-lap, sector-by-sector he had to let go a bit as his tyre went, but he still finished in fourth place. I think he pushed to get the best possible result from the bike here and we’re happy to finish the season with these results. With Nicky Hayden joining Mikey for next season, we’ve got some exciting plans and a great line-up as we head into the winter tests.
