27/09/22

Barcelona. After three consecutive podium weekends, the eighth round of the FIM Superbike World Championship at Barcelona proved to be more difficult for BMW Motorrad Motorsport. Scott Redding finished eighth in the Superpole race to record the best BMW race result of the weekend, only to take a tumble in both main races. His team-mate Michael van der Mark endured a similarly challenging weekend with technical problems and a fall too, before he scored points for finishing 13th in race two.

Both riders struggled in Superpole qualification on Saturday morning. Redding qualified 13th and van der Mark in 19th position.  Race one did not go according to plan as Redding fell and van der Mark retired with a technical issue.
 
The weekend continued with the Superpole race on Sunday morning, which determined the top nine grid positions for race two. Redding produced some great racing as he finished eighth. Van der Mark suffered more bad luck, forced to return the bike to the pits early after a fall.  Van der Mark finished 13th to round off a difficult weekend in the points. Redding fell at the start of the race, but was able to soon return to the pits after being examined in the medical centre.
 
Round nine of the WorldSBK season will take place in two weeks (7th to 9th October) at Portimão (POR).

“It was a very mixed weekend for us with a few retirements, some of which came about as a result of falls. We were definitely unable to meet our own expectations. Scott fell twice in the main races. He had a relatively good Superpole race which made us a bit more optimistic. If you look at his times, the top eight would have been possible for him in race two. Michael also had a very difficult weekend with a defect in the first race and a fall in the Superpole race. That made it difficult to work on the setup and achieve more in race two. We’ll analyse it now and see what insights we can gain. The Bonovo action BMW Racing Team overcame the challenges here well. The objective for the team this season is reaching the top ten, and they achieved that in all three races. However, the gap to the leaders is too large for everyone and we have to work on that. At Portimão, we will be right back where we belong.
 
Our race weekend was overshadowed by Friday’s news that BMW rider Leon Langstädtler died in an accident during the IDM practice session at Hockenheim. The whole BMW Motorrad Motorsport family is devastated by what has happened. I would like to express our sincerest condolences to the Langstädtler family, Leon’s friends and team, and everyone who was close to him. Our thoughts are with them at this time.”

“Today was a little bit better than yesterday when I struggled a lot. We’ve made some changes on the bike overnight and the Superpole race was better for us. We were fighting for sixth position but ended up eighth. Then in the main race in the afternoon, we had to go for the harder option front tyre which I crashed also on yesterday. We put on that tyre again because of the temperatures and we think it was the right way to go. Then I crashed again on the first lap. Overall, I’m okay, a little bit sore on the knee, so I will be fit for the next race, but I’m a little bit disappointed with our performance this weekend but you’ve got to take the bad with the good.”