WSBK: Donington Park and Brno
Michael van der Mark of Pata Yamaha clinches his first double victory at Donington Park, giving Yamaha their first win in Britain since 2011
Michael van der Mark had a number of reasons to celebrate his double victory at donington Park as he became the first ever dutchman to win a race in WSBK history. he also became the first rider, after Marco Melandri, to win on a Yamaha after a seven-year hiatus.
Race One
The first race saw some interesting action involving the Kawasaki duo of Jonathan rea and Tom Sykes, and Pata Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark. as the lights went out, rea took the lead. he was followed by Sykes in second and Michael in third. rea and Sykes kept exchanging the lead for the first half of the race. however, on lap 12, van der Mark was able to slip into second when rea, who was running in P2, outbraked himself allowing the dutch rider to take advantage of the situation. From here, the Pata Yamaha rider started his charge for the lead and, two laps later, he was able to slip into the lead after Sykes, who was leading the race, made an error. Michael started to pull away as Sykes and rea started their duel for the second place. at the end of the race, van der Mark took the win with a healthy margin of 1.136 seconds. championship leader rea was able to finish in second place after a tough fight with team-mate Sykes, who eventually finished third.
Race Two
The second race was even more exciting as several riders fought for the lead, including the Kawasaki duo. The race started with Pata Yamaha’s alex lowes and Milwaukee aprilia’s lorenzo Savadori fighting for the lead, followed by Michael van der Mark and Jonathan rea. lowes, who was running in P2 on the first lap, made his move on the second lap to take the lead from Savadori. Soon Michael van der Mark too climbed up to P3 with rea taking P4 by lap four. For the first seven laps, the fight was among these four riders. On lap eight, however, rea went past Savadori to take P3. By lap 12, rea had overtaken Michael to move up to P2 with lowes still leading.
The action became even more interesting on lap 17, when rea got the lead as he overtook lowes, relegating him to P2 with van der Mark in P3. On the following lap, things changed dramatically as Michael went past rea to take the lead and started pulling away. By now, razgatlioglu of Kawasaki Puccetti racing had moved up the order into P4 and, by lap 20, he pushed lowes to P4, taking the fight to rea who was running in P2.
come lap 23, the last lap of the race, and razgatlioglu blasted past rea to take P2, his first-ever podium in WSBK. Meanwhile, at the front Michael van der Mark claimed his first double victory, which gave him much reason to celebrate as he moved to third place in the championship.