Redding: “My hands were burning”, BMW confirm Van Der Mark return

Scott Redding says conditions at the Imola WorldSBK round were so hot that his hands were burning.

18 Jul 2023

Despite Race 2 being reduced from 19 laps down 15, Redding was struggling with the heat whilst battling fellow BMW rider Loris Baz.

Redding eventually came across the line behind Baz in P8, and although he failed to show the same performance as Donington Park, Redding felt as though it was an okay weekend.

"The weekend has not been too bad, really," said Redding. "We had a good qualifying, the practices were not so bad.

"But we had a really high temperature coming in yesterday’s race and today. We just missed a little bit, really.

"When the grip drops from the temperature we seem to suffer a bit more than the other people. But from yesterday to today I tried to do something a little bit different, I tried to be a bit more calmer on the front tyre and it was better.

"The race was shorter but also it was so hot. I never felt this hot in a race, even at Aragon or Jerez when it was 42 degrees. It was not that hot as it is now. My hands were burning.

"It has been a good decision to make the race shorter because it was coming to a boiling point. Overall, regarding the hot conditions it has not been so bad for us here, we normally suffer more so I took some usable data that we can try to work on for the next races."

While Redding’s future, which was expected to be announced on the second raceday at Imola, was not confirmed, there was good news for the German manufacturer as they confirmed the return of Michael Van Der Mark for the next round at Most.

Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director, said this about the weekend and Van Der Mark’s return following a broken leg.

"It was an absolute scorcher. Imola is a beautiful track where we hadn’t been for four years. Our expectations were somewhat dampened beforehand because two of our four riders had never been here before, and the heat doesn’t usually favour us.

"At the end of the weekend, we had two top-ten finishes in every race. We can be quite satisfied with that.

"Loris gave a very strong performance with three top-ten results. He was the top BMW rider twice. He followed Scott’s setup, which clearly worked well for him.

"Garrett also had extremely strong performances in the practice sessions. Unfortunately, he was hindered by yellow flags multiple times during Superpole, starting from 15th place, and couldn’t convert his strong pace into the races. That was a shame.

"For Leon as a substitute rider, it was of course difficult to jump onto a new bike during a race weekend.

"He delivered what we expected. Now we look ahead to Most, a track where we were very successful last year. We will also see Michael van der Mark’s comeback there."