Was this the "full magic" race of the 2024 WSBK season?

The 2024 WorldSBK French Round was one of the most eventful of the season, and it was Michael van der Mark who was able to take advantage of that in Race 1.

Van der Mark’s factory BMW teammate, Toprak Razgatlioglu, began the chaos on Friday when he crashed in practice and punctured his lung, forcing him to withdraw from the weekend (and the Italian Round the week after).

On Saturday, heavy rain ensured the unpredictability of the weekend continued, with Alex Lowes taking just the second pole of his WorldSBK career, and three BMWs qualifying in the top-five – Garrett Gerloff in third ahead of Scott Redding, and van der Mark fifth in the middle of the second row.

By the afternoon, the rain had paused but threatened to resume, and the track was drying on the grid, leaving the riders with a decision to make on tyre choice.

“Standing on the grid there, we knew it was going to rain at some point,” van der Mark told WorldSBK.com.

“The track wasn’t fully dry, as well, but it was dry enough for slicks.

“I remember making a deal with my team. I said ‘Whenever it starts to rain, I’ll come in immediately’.

“I saw the guys on intermediates and I thought they’d made the wrong decision.”

The start of the race saw van der Mark battling with Alex Lowes before the rain arrived. Afterwards, they were together again, but while Lowes pushed on and crashed, van der Mark rode to his feeling, stayed on, and managed a relatively comfortable victory.

“I had a good start and had a nice battle with Alex [Lowes],” he said.

“We were pushing really hard and then it started to rain. Some people started to pass me on intermediates where it was raining quite hard but in other places it was okay, so it was hard to decide what to do.

“I knew that I made a deal with the team that when it started raining I would come in immediately, but then I saw Alex doing another lap and I [decided to] follow him – honestly, that lap it was raining really hard, and I think Garrett [Gerloff, on intermediates] already passed us.

“I was like ‘Okay, this lap we have to survive, and we have to come in’. I remember passing Alex in the pit lane, the team did a fantastic pit stop.

“[The bike] felt good from the start [in the wet], and it was raining heavier and heavier, and then Garrett crashed.

“It was me and Alex leading again and we were pulling away from the guys behind us while I had the feeling that I was not pushing at all.

“Alex passed me, and I was like ‘Do whatever you want, I’m comfortable at this speed, I feel safe at this speed’. And obviously then he crashed, and I had 12 more laps to go — I think it was my 12 longest laps of the last couple of years.”

Van der Mark, who hadn’t won since the Portimao Superpole Race in 2021, explained that achieving the victory – which extended BMW’s winning run to 14 after Toprak Razgatlioglu’s previous streak of 13 successive wins – was hard to believe.

“I couldn’t believe it for a long time, and the night after I just couldn’t sleep because I didn’t believe it,” he said.

“Everything went perfectly, and it’s the race that you’re aiming for. It was a full magic moment of this season.”