In one of the most composed and consistent weekends of his season, Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) returned triumphantly from the summer break with two successive rostrum finishes, taking second place on Sunday in Race Two at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve.

The Dutch rider had managed to fight to third place the previous day despite not finding himself at his most comfortable on the R1. On Sunday he found the missing piece of the puzzle, however, pushing at a race-winning pace in all twenty laps and passing both Ducati riders in one swift movement to take second at the Portuguese rollercoaster.

“At a certain point I saw Johnny, Chaz and Marco fighting a lot and I was closing in on them”, remembers van der Mark on his podium-claiming pass. “Then Marco and Chaz had a fight at turn 1; I wasn’t expecting them to go wide but they both did, and I passed them. After that I just did my laps, tried to keep my pace stable. I was a bit faster than Johnny at the beginning, but at the end we were quite similar”.

“I’m a lot happier than yesterday, I felt a lot more comfortable with the bike”, he adds “It’s a really important podium for us”.

Now van der Mark faces the last three rounds just 20 points behind Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) in the standings. The first bout will be in France in two weeks’ time: “I have had some incredible moments at Magny-Cours, I look forward to riding there with the YZF-R1. We have some small updates for the bike, from the Portimao test. I’m really happy with the bike, really curious to see how it works there. I can’t wait to go out again”.

Watch the full highlights of the Yamaha rider’s performance at Portimao thanks to the WorldSBK VideoPass.