25 points for Van der Mark at Assen

23-04-2012

Van der Mark gave everything he had to increase his lead which he then held for the remainder of the dry race. At the end he was able to extend his lead to nearly five seconds over Spaniard Nacho Calero Perez (Yamaha) and Belgium Gauthier Duwelz (Yamaha).

Pole position holder Bastien Chesaux had a very disappointing Superstock 600 European Championship race as he crashed out in third position after a couple of corners. The Swiss rider tried to overtake another rider in the Strubben harp in but touched the rear tire of the opponent and crashed unfortunately. Chesaux was able to rejoin the race and ended in 25th position.

Fabio Massei will start tomorrow’s FIM Cup Superstock 1000 in sixth place. The second Superstock 1000 qualifying was hampered by tricky track conditions. Massei remained calm and improved his time from yesterday with nearly three-tents of a second.

Michael van der Mark (STK600 race – 1st - 20'36.504): “I’m so happy for me and for the team. I had a very good start and so were the first laps. I knew we had a very fast race pace and that gave me a lot of confidence. I pushed every lap as hard as I could and was able to run away. I want to thank everyone who helped me this weekend, my team, my sponsors, my family, my fans. It was a great weekend, bring on Monza!”

Bastien Chesaux (STK600 race – 25th + 2 laps): “I’m disappointed. My start was not good but I was still in third position. I tried to overtake another rider but I hit the rear tire of his bike with my front tire and lost the control. Too bad because a good result was possible in the home race of my team but you should look further and it's going better and better. Hopefully we can maintain this upward trend at Monza. Congratulations to Michael for his victory.”

Fabio Massei (STK1000 qualification – 6th + 1.055 seconds): “We changed the setting of the bike during the last qualification but I need more time to understand the changes. I’m therefore very pleased with my sixth place on the grid. We make a lot of progression every session and that makes me even happier. Hopefully we have a good race tomorrow!”