“Overwhelmingly positive” Jerez test for van der Mark, Yamaha

Michael van der Mark has given a glowing review following the Jerez test as he and the Pata Yamaha team aim to get the new YZF-R1 up to speed ahead of the 2020 World Superbike championship.

The Dutch rider notched up an impressive 177 laps across the two-day Jerez test held in ideal conditions given the late November schedule and while van der Mark didn’t focus on an outright lap time he still produced a best lap of 1m 39.287s to take third place on the second day timesheet.

Working through a test development schedule plotted out by Yamaha with the new R1, van der Mark has been left impressed by both the work rate and improvements found in quick succession at Jerez.

“Normally in testing you have both positives and negatives as you work your way through the programme, but these two days were overwhelmingly positive. We completed a lot of laps, trying different things on the bike, and we managed to find a solution to the spinning issues we had during the second half of the season.

“After the rain in Aragon it was good to come here to Jerez and have almost perfect conditions for the final two days of testing this year.”

For 2020 van der Mark also welcomes a crew chief change with two-time World Supersport champion Andrew Pitt replacing Lez Pearson with the Australian switching sides inside the Pata Yamaha team having been Alex Lowes’s crew chief.

With Toprak Razgatlioglu joining van der Mark at the factory Yamaha team he also brings with him Phil Marron having formed a successful partnership as his crew chief at Puccetti Kawasaki.

“Working with my new crew has also been easy; it's already like we’ve spent a season together, so this test was a great way to end 2019 on a high note and I'm already looking forward to getting back on the bike in January,” van der Mark said.