24/07/21
TT Assen Circuit
The BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team did not have the best start to this mornings FP3 session as Michael van der Mark missed the full session due to a mechanical issue, putting him on the backfoot for Superpole.
As Superpole approached the bad fortune continued, however on the other side of the garage with Tom Sykes. On his opening lap he discovered a small technical issue which forced him to miss majority of the session. Despite his best efforts in returning the bike to the box he missed out on setting a fast qualifying lap by thousandths of a second with a lap that would have placed him on the front row in P2. Unfortunately, Tom started from the back of the grid as a result. Teammate Michael struggled to match the pace of the front runners as he put himself in P9 for the start of Race 1 after trying to set another fast lap on an expired “Q-tyre”
In Race 1, Michael initially got a difficult start on his BMW M 1000RR wheelieing off the line but throughout the race was running a fast pace and lap by lap was climbing the leaderboard with 3rd position in his sights. Unfortunately, with 2 laps from the end the red flag was brought out prematurely ending the race.
Sykes had his work cut out starting from the back of the grid however had the speed to battle his way through the pack. With the help from some crashes Tom worked his way into P7 collecting a valuable 9 points for his efforts.