Michael Van Der Mark ‘a lot happier with new swingarm’ at Portimao WorldSBK test
The Dutch rider says his feeling at Portimao with the new swingarm was much better than at Jerez, and left him ‘a lot happier’.
Michael Van Der Mark was over six tenths off WorldSBK team-mate Toprak Razgatlioglu, but that didn’t tell the whole story.
The factory BMW rider was a consistent presence inside the top ten and showed strong pace throughout.
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Van Der Mark, who was left fuming after day two in Jerez following an incident with fellow BMW rider Scott Redding, continued development of the German manufacturer’s new swingarm.
Not happy with the results in Jerez, Van Der Mark was much more content with the performance on day one in Portimao.
“We had a good day and our programme was just to confirm the parts we tried at Jerez,” Van Der Mark told WorldSBK.com.
“We had two different bikes and did longer runs to do a full comparison. It was quite interesting; this is a different track and the feedback from the parts was different to Jerez, so there’s a lot to think about.
“We tried a new swingarm; I had it in Jerez as well but this is a different track so we back-to-backed it here.
“I wasn’t happy with it at Jerez but here, I’m a lot happier with it. If it’s working here, we can play with the setup and make it work.”
When speaking about new parts BMW have left to try, Van Der Mark said adjusting the set-up is more of a priority before the season-opener at Phillip Island.
“It’s difficult but we didn’t really try much with the set-up, just the parts,” said the five-time WorldSBK race winner. “If it’s working here we can play with the set-up to make it work.”
