The first round of the Superbike World Championship didn’t go well for Michael van der Mark, who ended up crashing a minute after the start of the first race at Phillip Island.

In the Superpole race, the dutchman closed the top ten and in the second race he didn’t go beyond 12th place. After all, van der Mark ended the first round of the world championship with just four points. He is now 16th in the standings out of a total of 18 riders with points.

Here’s what the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team rider told WorldSBK.com about the subject:

– We didn’t get the results we wanted but if we analyze the weekend well it wasn’t that bad. I wasn’t that far away from the fight for fourth place but unfortunately I lost a lot of speed towards the end of the race. We didn’t end up where we wanted to but on my side I think it was a positive thing. We’re not that far away and I’m sure we’ve improved our competitive package. We still need more cornering speed and traction. It’s not easy but this weekend we’ll be at Mandalika, a different track. I’m curious to see how the bike fares there, it’s always nice to spend time in Indonesia! My grandmother is from here, people are very friendly. I’m confident but I have to keep calm. Our bike works well in wet and dry conditions. I think we will be more competitive than in Australia.