Round t🍬🌼wo of the 2025 WorldSBK season saw a contrast to the opener for Michael van der Mark and BMW, as the Dutch rider took three top-10 finishes.

In Australia, van der Mark had only collected two poiཧnts after crashing out in Race 1, missing the points in the Superpole Race, and struggling to 14th in Race 2.

The Portuguese Round, though, was much better, with a sixth in Race 1, desp🍎ite having “struggled”, followed up by a seventh in the Superpole Race and fifth in Race 2.

The results allowed van der Mark to leave Portimao in𝄹 a positive mood, especially given how his w♔eekend progressed.

“I think at the end it’s been qu꧒ite a good weekend,” van der Mark told WorldSBK.com after Race 2 in Portimao.

“We made some good steps during the test and [on Saturday] I struggled a lot 🌟in the race, so I wasn’t happy with the result. But today we fܫound some extra speed and I felt some more confidence, and to end up with fifth is not bad.”

Van der Mark, along with Yamaha's Andrea Locatelli, was somewhat keeping pace 🍬with third-placed Alvaro Bautista in Ra♏ce 2 before the red flag was thrown on lap eight.

Locatelli said that he felt the red flag had costꦬ him a chance at the podium, because after the red flag he changed tyres and then felt a vibrati🅠on in the restarted race.

Van der Mark, on the other hand,🧜 was less sure that he’d lost a pote🌟ntial rostrum.

“It’s hard to ♎say, because I had a strong pace then but it was still quite a long race🍨 so we didn’t really know what to expect,” he said.

“But I was happy that I had a good resta﷽rt and stayed out of trouble.

“I tried as much as I could to fight for th🌄e podium, but it was good that, even though I was riding alone, we had a good pace and I pulled a big gap to the guys behind me.”

After Ducati dominated the Australian Round in February, things were s🥀lightly more even between the Panigales and the re♚st of the bikes in Portugal.

Van der Mark was wary of the swing in performance difference, though, due to the different characteristics of the Phillip Island and Portimao layouts. Assen, he said, where round three of this year's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:World Superbike Champio🐻nship will be held on 🎶11-13 April, would be a better indicator of where the balance of performance really lies.

“Honestly, Portimao and Phillip Island are completely differ🔯ent tracks and this track has a lot of hard braking and slow corners which suit us better now,” he said.

“Assen is a bit of a combination of both, ♎so I think there we will see the real leve🗹l.”