Michael van der Mark made his mark in France finishing the Friday in P6 at the end of the combined standings ahead of the Fassi French Round.

Sixth place was an impressive feat after the young Dutchman wasn’t able to experiment with different setups like his compatriots in FP1, as engine problems prevented him from partaking. After only one practice session the Honda World Superbike rider will speed into Saturday’s Tissot-Superpole 2 qualifying session with less track time and hoping for a front row grid position.

“This morning was a shame, we had a problem with the engine so I didn’t do the session this morning,” said van der Mark. “With the new time schedule it’s important to get both sessions in on Friday, so this afternoon I went out just needing to do some laps. I didn’t feel confident with the bike so after a couple of laps we made a big change on the rear and immediately I went faster and felt happy on the bike. I was improving and improving but missing this morning’s session and ending the day in P6 this afternoon is really good and is really important to be in Superpole 2 tomorrow. After this morning I’m really happy this afternoon.”

Rear grip seemed to be the problem for many riders on Friday morning, and without first hand experience, van der Mark decided to follow the crowd with setup for FP2, with the Dutchman saying, “Because I didn’t ride this morning the team changed some things in the rear because there were a lot of people complaining about the grip from FP1 but for me it didn’t work. We changed it back quite fast. At the end it worked it was difficult to see what we had to do this afternoon but luckily they had everything ready to change the rear and find some more grip.”

After sorting out the issue early on in the session the number 60 rider was thankful his team was able to find a quick solution so he can focus on Saturday’s Tissot-Superpole 2 which will be contested at 10:55am local time ahead of Race 1 of Round 11 at 13:00 (GMT+2).