Van der Mark: Rossi U-turn takes pressure off for debut

Yamaha World Superbike regular van der Mark will make his premier class bow in Malaysia this weekend standing in for the unwell Jonas Folger at the satellite Tech 3 team, filling the seat occupied by Kohta Nozane and Broc Parkes in Motegi and Phillip Island respectively.

It follows the Dutchman’s abortive debut in Aragon, where he had been teed up to stand in for Rossi at the factory team – only for the Italian to be passed fit to ride with a broken leg.

Van der Mark believes the fact he will be standing in for Folger and not Rossi this time around will take the spotlight off as he makes his first MotoGP foray, saying there will be “not a lot of pressure”.

Asked if the situation in Sepang felt different to Aragon, he said: “Yeah, a little bit, because it’s not Valentino’s bike.

“But at the end it’s still a MotoGP bike, it’s a really good one as well. Everything is still new, still really excited and a little bit nervous, because I don’t know what to expect.

“This we will see tomorrow morning. There’s a not lot of pressure, it’s just an amazing opportunity for me to finally get this ride.”

Van der Mark said he will not be setting himself any concrete targets for the weekend, focussing only on making steady improvements with each session.

“I have no idea what to expect,” he said. “For me the main thing is to improve really session, and that we make a lot of progress by Sunday.

“This is what I hope to do and the only thing I can expect. If I set a goal now I could be disappointed. I just need to go in straight, learn every session.

“That’s the only thing we can do now, because I never rode this bike, [Michelin] tyres or [carbon] brakes. There’s a lot to learn and a lot to improve.”

Suzuka 8h experience

In addition to his usual WSBK commitments, van der Mark also competed in the Suzuka 8 Hours for Yamaha, taking victory alongside Alex Lowes and Katsuyuki Nakasuga, and also contested a one-off All-Japan Superbike event at Autopolis in place of the absent Nozane.

With both the Suzuka and JSB variants of the R1 using Bridgestone tyres, as opposed to Pirellis in WSBK, van der Mark reckons his experience of switching bikes this season will help him adapt to the Michelin-shod M1 quickly this weekend.

“This year I rode many different bikes,” he said. “I hope this will help me and I think it will help me.

“Sometimes it’s good to change many bikes during the season, sometimes not so good. But this year it has been good because I gained so much experience which we transferred into Superbike.”

Additional reporting by Scherazade Mulia Saraswati