Michael van der Mark and his Pata Yamaha team-mate Alex Lowes are about to be once again locked in a private and unspoken battle inside their team, with neither of the R1 riders having quite managed to win a full-on WorldSBK race yet.
As last year’s only full season entry podium threats to the Kawasaki and Ducati dominance to actually make it into top three positions the best bet for non-Ninja or Panigale riding race winners in 2018 is still the third most official team in the championship – Yamaha – and its two ambitions riders.
At last week’s Jerez tests Lowes seemed clearly faster than VDM, but in Portimao VDM and his crew found a way onwards and upwards, if still slightly behind the absolute fastest in a one lap pace.
“On the first day we made a big step forward and I felt so much better on the bike compared to Jerez,” said van der Mark on the final day in Portugal. It may help him more in races than for just one fast lap, too. “The guys worked really hard and they finally found something that I really liked. Yesterday we were fast and today we improved some small things, so we are really fast and consistent. Now we are trying some big things on the bike and both options are working really well. We have a better feeling with a new tyre but we also have a good feeling in used tyres, so I think we have made a big improvement.”
Like all the main official riders on show, VDM had the luxury of two bikes in the garage at Portimao, unlike races, which still operate a form of single bike rule. Hence the Portimao live testing screens often had two lap times on the same screen for Rea, Davies, Lowes, etc.
VDM used both of his R1s through the tests, rather than just having one as a spare. “We used one bike for a new engine to check if everything is OK, but the rest of the bike is the same for comparison, and doing back-to-back tests,” said the 2014 WorldSSP champion.
By Gordon Ritchie