Nicky Hayden claimed the best qualifying result of his rookie WorldSBK season in Tissot-Superpole 2 in the Malaysian heat, with a fourth place to head up the second row on a track the American knows well. Meanwhile, his teammate van der Mark found himself out of position on the fourth row of the grid in tenth, needing to recover positions to keep building on his impressive P4 in the title standings.

Van der Mark made a spectacular start and first lap to move up from P10, but found teammate Hayden able to pass him and escape. As the laps went on, however, the Honda pair found themselves converging and battled over position once more, with the Dutchman eventually winning the tussle for seventh place in the final stages.

“I got a good start and I was feeling good in the first couple of corners, but immediately I felt I was missing some grip and I couldn’t handle the bike the way I wanted," lamented van der Mark. "I couldn’t attack and not even stay with the guys at the front. I was just trying to keep the quickest possible pace but towards the end of the race, I was passed by a couple of riders.

“Eventually I was able to overtake Nicky for seventh before the chequered flag, but it was clear that we were both having our own difficulties. We need to make some changes for tomorrow and turn our luck around for race 2.”

Kentucky Kid Hayden agreed that progress needed to be made: “It surely wasn’t a fantastic race and it’s a bit of a shame, really, especially considering how the day started out. Even if my Superpole wasn’t perfect, I still got my best qualifying place of the season. Despite a little electronic glitch at the start of the race I was still in a decent position but already from the second lap I had a huge drop off of grip...

“I still managed to make a couple of passes but the feeling with the bike was definitely not the same as before. We will surely go for a different tyre tomorrow and hopefully we’ll be able to put up a better fight.”

The heat is on again at 16:00 local time (GMT +8), for the Honda duel to continue.