SBK | Motul Dutch Round, FP3: Michael Van der Mark is focused on the race

“I'm here to win”: Michael Van der Mark has been repeating it like a mantra for days and reiterates it today by setting the best overall time at the end of the three free practice sessions at the TT Circuit in Assen, his home track, thanks to a lap great three minutes from time.

Assen is in fact a couple of hours from his hometown, Gouda, enough to make him feel all the affection of the public but also a bit of pressure for the final result: “I felt strong already in the first session, I had a good pace, there were just areas where I wanted to improve the bike” – he explained Michael Van der Mark – “In the second session we tried to make the bike work with the hard tyre, but it didn't work very well. In the third session I did a long run and it was quite good, but I'm missing a bit of pace. However, after the long run I managed to go out and set an excellent time. I'm very happy with the bike, there are just some small things to fix, but in general I'm strong in every area. If we can fix these little things, we can fight for the podium tomorrow.”

Van der Mark has collected three third places here in WorldSBK and is very determined to do better: “If we finish like today we win. It will be difficult, Johnny [Rea] is very strong here, he also has great pace. If we can stay with him as much as possible, we can fight for victory. The podium is my goal, but I certainly want to win.”