Michael van der Mark ended the first day at the TT Circuit Assen in P9 with some mixed weather bringing mixed fortunes to the WorldSBK paddock, and rain proving the main protagonist of the day. The 2014 WorldSSP Champion moves straight through to Tissot-Superpole 2 at his home round, where last year he scored two podiums, but did suffer two crashes on the opening day.

"It's been a long time since we rode in the wet so I went out and step by step went faster and then I got a little bit too happy, and from one lap to another I went too fast into a corner and crashed,” explained the Dutchman, who suffered a crash in FP1. “The bike was quite damaged. The team did an awesome job to get me out for the last ten minutes and on the last lap I improved my time from before, so I was happy that after the crash I improved my lap time.

“This afternoon it was wet again but slowly drying, and I was making progress. I had some problems with the grip and it's still not really fixed but I'm sure it will be if it's wet tomorrow,” assured van der Mark. “Then, I made a silly mistake when I knew it was raining on the back, and I tried to do the corner the same as when it was drying out and I crashed again...luckily this time the bike wasn't really damaged. P9 is not really what I wanted but I'm happy to be in Superpole 2. I know what I did wrong so hopefully I won't do the same again!”

So is it pressure or motivation, racing at home?

“The home crowd motivates me. I´m happy to have a home race and so early in the season after the great results we’ve had already this year. For me it’s just motivating to keep pushing harder and harder!”