Round 13 – Qatar
Losail International Circuit, Qatar
The lights on the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship went off today as the series lived its final race of the season at the Losail International Circuit. Honda WorldSBK Team’s Nicky Hayden and Michael van der Mark finished in 7th and 11th places, respectively, at the end of a shortened 10-lap race two in Qatar. The initial encounter was red flagged during the eighth lap after a technical problem occurred to the bike of local rider Saeed Al Sulaiti.
After starting from pit-lane, Nicky Hayden made his way up to 15th position before the red flag was deployed. At the restart, the 35-year-old American gained some positions and, in the final four laps, he was able to find some extra pace that allowed him to join the 4-way battle for fifth. Hayden made a couple of successful moves on Fores and De Rosa before the chequered flag to end up seventh.
Michael van der Mark got a great launch off row three but ended up losing several positions as he was pushed wide at turn one. The former World Supersport Champion made up some ground and by lap eight he was back to ninth place. When the new race got underway, van der Mark moved up to eighth place but could not hold on to it and finished eleventh in his last race with the team and Honda.
The final standings see Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden in fourth and fifth places, respectively.
Nicky Hayden 69 7th
“It has not been an easy day. Towards the end of the race yesterday we started experiencing a little bit of a problem. We hoped it was due to some changes we made but as soon as I went out in the warm up it was still there so I only did one lap and that was it. The team had to change the engine and we had to start from the pit-lane, which is not nice but those are the rules! I got away pretty well, was chipping away and making some moves and luckily for me the race was red flagged. I was back in the group although still back in 15th place but again I started chipping away and had some nice battles and in the end I was seventh, which from pit-lane is definitely not bad! I also was able to make up a couple of places on the last lap and that was nice, too. All things considered, given the time we also lost in warm up, it was not an easy day but we salvaged something. I want to thank the team, all my crew, the sponsors and everybody behind me: I’m now looking forward to next year.”
Michael van der Mark 60 11th
“I really good start in the first race but I had a big moment in turn one as I got hit from behind. I was way back again and was struggling to get up to speed. After the red flag we changed a little bit the bike setup for the second start and I got away quite well again, but even with new tyres I struggled to find the right grip. It was quite frustrating, because I thought we would have made quite a step forward but thing simply didn’t work today. Of course, I wish the season and my journey with Honda would have ended with a better result, but fourth in the championship is a great achievement and I want to thank all the guys for the hard work they have done. I think we can be really happy with what we’ve done this year.”
Pieter Breddels, Technical Manager
“The day didn’t start off well as we had to change the engine on Nicky’s bike and that meant he had to start from pit-lane. The red flag really came to our assistance and in the new 10-lap sprint race he showed a great pace, especially at the end. So all in all, compared to how it looked at the beginning, a seventh place is a pretty good result. Michael unfortunately wasn’t as comfortable as expected in the first part of the race, so we decided to make some changes during the red flag break. He still didn’t have the right amount grip and that made him an easy target for his rivals. Eleventh is not the result we would have hoped for Michael’s last race with us, but we want to thank him for an amazing four years together. He has many years of racing ahead of him so, who knows, maybe our paths will cross again at some point?”
