San Juan. The first race of the FIM Superbike World
Championship (WorldSBK) Argentina round ended with a top six result
for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. Michael van der Mark (NED)
completed race one at the ‘Circuito San Juan Villicum’ (ARG) in
sixth place with his BMW M 1000 RR. Eugene Laverty (IRL), standing
in again for Tom Sykes (GBR), was also on track for the top eight
before falling back to 13th position during the closing stage of the
race. San Juan is hosting the penultimate round of the 2021 WorldSBK season.
In Superpole on Saturday morning, van der Mark qualified seventh with
Laverty in twelfth. At the start, van der Mark shortly fell back but
soon was back to seventh while Laverty moved up three positions to
exit the first turns in ninth. Laverty then moved up to eighth on lap
five, right behind van der Mark. The two BMW riders remained in those
positions until Laverty fell back to tenth around the halfway point of
the race. Van der Mark closed the gap to the top six and claimed sixth
spot on lap eleven, and that was the position he was in when taking
the chequered flag after 21 laps. Meanwhile, Laverty fought with blunt
weapons and crossed the line in 13th position.
Quotes after race one at San Juan.
Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team:
“Today has been a much better day than FP1 and FP2 yesterday.
Both Michael and Eugene have made big steps forward as we expected
from yesterday’s performance. In Superpole, Michael only narrowly
missed out the second row and Eugene did great job to get on the
fourth row in twelfth position from where he had started the weekend
so going into race one, both guys were in a much happier situation. I
think the bikes are very alike in set-up which is something that we
strive towards. Going into the race, both guys felt very comfortable.
Mostly the entire grid selected the same rear tyre, the SCX which
proved to be the only tyre suiting for these conditions. Mickey had a
solid race. From seventh position he battled to sixth. From there he
could not improve position despite the fact that his fastest lap of
the race came at the very end. This showed that we have a good basis
to work on overnight. In the last five or six laps, Mickey was first
or second quickest on track but it just was not possible for him to
further improve from sixth position. It was a great effort from him
today and clearly fourth to sixth is the target for tomorrow. Eugene
just fell back a little bit towards the end of the race. Before, he
was in a good position in a good group of riders but as the fuel load
went down, the balance of his bike changed and he was not that
comfortable anymore. We will work on that for tomorrow. Overall, it
was a not too-bad day. Obviously, we are striving for more but
generally we can say that race one was successful for both riders and
we are looking forward to the Superpole race and race two tomorrow.”
Michael van der Mark, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “We
have made a big step forward this morning in FP3 compared to
yesterday. I was happier with the bike. We made a small change during
the session and it was alright. Superpole was quite good; starting
seventh on the grid was okay. I did not have a great start, but got
into a rhythm and passed some guys. It was a long and a bit of a
boring race. I had some small battles but had some limitations trying
to pass people but in the end I think sixth isn’t that bad. Now we
have to find some small improvements on the bike and we will be fine tomorrow.”
Eugene Laverty, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team:
“Superpole went quite well for me. I managed to qualify
twelfth and was happy with the lap time that I did with the qualifying
tyre. Also the beginning of the race went well. I made a good start
and overtook some guys. After a few laps I was up in eighth position.
With a full tank of fuel, the bike was feeling very good but
unfortunately once the fuel load went down the bike became very
difficult for me and I was struggling towards the end so we need to
re-balance the bike to make it better for whenever the fuel tank goes
empty. That’s the plan for tomorrow and I am confident that it won’t
be such a big job and that we will be a little bit stronger towards
the end of the races tomorrow.”