28/05/21
Circuito Estoril

Following on from an impressive opening round at the MotorLand Aragon circuit, the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team duo of Tom Sykes (GBR) and Michael van der Mark (NED) today completed day 1 of the WorldSBK round in Estoril.

In the opening FP1 session Michael van der Mark’s BMW M1000 RR unfortunately had some technical issues which forced him to miss most of the session, only completing 4 laps and as a result finishing in P16. Team-mate Tom Sykes completed 16 laps in the first free practice session, with the fastest lap time of a 1’38.170, putting him in P9.

The afternoons FP2 session saw an increase in track temperature, which made the session difficult for all competitors. Despite that, it held better fortune for Michael van der Mark as he managed to gain some valuable laps around the 4.182 km circuit lapping his best of a 1’38.293 in P12, narrowly missing out on the top 10 combined places.

Tom Sykes had a small crash at T1 during the final session of the day, however, was able to bring the bike back to the garage with only cosmetic damage. In the final moments of FP2 a crash from Yamaha rider Kohta Nozane (JPN) brought out the red flag with 3 minutes remaining, leaving a short 3-minute revised session. Tom was able to capitalize on this as he improved his lap time on the last lap with a 1’38.039, putting him in P10 overall.

“Of course, this morning in FP1 was not very promising. With Michael we had an issue with electronics which meant he lost most of FP1 unfortunately. The progression he made into FP2 however was good and made up the lost time from the morning, he did a good couple of runs and although the conditions in the afternoon were very hot from this morning, still managed to be close to the top 10. Tom had an OK FP1. Then in FP2 he pressed out a good lap at the end on the used “X” tyre to put him into the top 10, so overall fairly satisfied with the opening day.”

“We stayed on the same tyre during this morning’s FP1 session which meant we significantly dropped down the order in the latter stages of the session. Then this afternoon in the hot conditions it was tricky, we needed to do some trial-and-error tests but in the end, we found some positive information which was good. We had a small crash during the session, but big credit to the boys as they soon put the beauty back together again, so we were back on track with fairly limited track time lost. Overall good information today, we do know its going to be difficult track conditions for everybody tomorrow, but certainly now we hope to make some good improvements tomorrow.”  

“It was not an easy Friday, unfortunately this morning we lost most of the session with a technical problem, which was a lot of important time lost. Then this afternoon’s session we went out, but in the opening stages I struggled with the grip of the bike. We made some changes during the session which was a big improvement, and I was able to improve my lap time which I was happy about. For us, the most important thing is to complete a full session tomorrow morning and make some progress from today.”