Van der Mark: Double victory comes after fighting every day

Michael van der Mark says he’s in dreamland after securing a maiden double victory at Pata Yamaha’s home round at Donington Park and feels the team’s tireless work is starting to pay off.

The Dutch rider joined the factory Yamaha squad at the start of 2017, one year into the Japanese manufacturer’s return to the World Superbike championship, after Crescent Racing switched from running Suzuki to Yamaha.

Having collected a handful of podiums with Pata Yamaha, van der Mark has stormed to his maiden wins in the championship with a dominant double victory at Donington Park. A measured charge through the field in race two, having started ninth on the reverse grid, van der Mark says once he had clear track he could rediscover his untouchable race pace from the opener.

Van der Mark has moved up to third place in the riders’ standings thanks to his double, equal on points with Tom Sykes but ahead on wins count, and feels the two victories at the British circuit are reward for Pata Yamaha’s renewed efforts in the series.

“It has been an incredible weekend starting from yesterday with the first victory which I was so happy with and I couldn’t dream of doing the double,” van der Mark said. “I don’t know how we did it starting from ninth on the grid and in the first couple of corners it was a bit crazy with some riders doing strange things.

“I stayed calm and worked my way to the front and followed Alex [Lowes] for a long time before Jonny passed me but in the end I managed to get back past him and pull away so it was similar to race one.

“To take my first double within my first win is something I could never dream of.

“Over the last two seasons we’ve secured some podiums and yesterday with the first victory and we wanted it so badly so everybody was so happy. Yesterday we showed what we could do but it was one strong day, now we are strong again after fighting every single day.”

The Dutch rider has secured Yamaha's first double race win since Cal Crutchlow did the double at Silverstone back in 2010, while it marks the first-ever wins by a rider from the Netherlands in the series.