Maiden win for van der Mark in Donington Park thriller

Full WorldSBK race one results from Donington Park

Michael van der Mark has claimed his first World Superbike race win beating both Kawasaki riders Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes in a frantic opener at Donington Park.

The Dutch rider’s win marks Yamaha’s first victory in the series in seven years, when Marco Melandri clinched the final race win of the 2011 season, and becomes the first rider from the Netherlands to stand on the top step of the rostrum in the series’ history.

While the Kawasaki duo dominated free practice and qualifying, van der Mark was somewhat of the surprise package with his early race pace keeping him in touch with Sykes and Rea who produced a furious scrap for the lead over the opening laps.

On lap 12 van der Mark began his charge from third place when he took advantage of Rea outbraking himself at the Melbourne Loop to take second place behind Sykes.

With van der Mark the fastest rider on track he reeled in Sykes within two laps and once again profited from a Kawasaki error as Sykes lost momentum on the charge to Melbourne Loop after a poor exit from the Fogarty Esses. The Pata Yamaha rider made the bold move up the inside into the hairpin and bolted clear at the front.

Van der Mark’s charge was aided by another hairy moment at the exit of Fogarty Esses for Sykes which allowed Rea to close up, before getting the move completed half a lap later at Schwantz Curve, to move into second place with seven laps to go.

Rea then produced a series of fastest laps of the race to bridge the time gap to van der Mark but the Pata Yamaha rider held his nerve to take victory for the first time in the series.

With Rea and Sykes completing the podium, van der Mark’s teammate Alex Lowes had to settle for fourth place ahead of the Milwaukee Aprilia duo of Lorenzo Savadori and Eugene Laverty while Loris Baz equalled his best result of the year in seventh place for Althea BMW.

Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Chaz Davies jumped up to eighth place late on after a brave move up the inside of the Melbourne Loop which saw the Puccetti Kawasaki duo of Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu tangle that saw the Turkish rider tumble off.

That promoted Red Bull Honda’s Leon Camier up to 10^th place on his return from injury ahead of MV Agusta’s Jordi Torres and Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Leandro Mercado claimed 13^th place for Orelac Kawasaki ahead of wildcard star Bradley Ray for Buildbase Suzuki as TripleM Honda’s PJ Jacobsen rounded out the points places.