Saturday’s action at the #FrenchWorldSBK round saw Michael van der Mark (Honda World Superbike Team) bring it home in second place behind winner Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) on a wet-drying track at Magny-Cours.

The result consolidates the Dutch rider’s fourth place in the standings behind Davies, as he pulls away from fifth placed Nicky Hayden in the points tally, with the American unable to finish Saturday’s race.

Van der Mark judged the conditions well to make a pit stop and change from wet tyres to slicks at the right moment to allow him to battle through the field for his sixth podium finish of 2016 and his first since Misano in June.

A buoyant Van der Mark stated after the race: “It was a difficult decision and I took the gamble. To be honest I don’t have a really good feeling on intermediates. So I gambled and went with wet tyres. It was just frustrating so I decided to relax and change to slicks. Lap by lap we were getting faster and faster. It is a really important podium for us. We made an important decision. I think at the end it was almost quite close but I think a podium is what we needed after a couple of rounds without a podium. So we are really happy. It was a difficult race but I really enjoyed it.”

On some enthralling moves which he made during the race, he added, “It was difficult because it’s hard to overtake other riders on wet tyres on a drying track, like I did before, so I struggled a lot to keep the line. I needed to pass them as soon as possible so that’s why I went around the outside. Of course it’s not the safest way but I wanted the podium so badly!”