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.