Scott hopes to build on progress made in Mandalika weekend
Mandalika. Round two of the FIM Superbike World Championship 2023 (WorldSBK) at Mandalika, Indonesia, began with promising results on Saturday. Baz led the BMW quartet with an excellent performance in Superpole qualifying. Van der Mark qualified tenth, followed by Scott Redding (GBR / ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in eleventh.
Sadly a technical issue forced Scott out of Race 1 after lying ninth in the first-third of the race.
The Superpole race on Sunday morning had to be suspended after just one lap. Scott ended the Superpole race in eighth and ninth, improving his grid position accordingly for race two. Race two also proved to be a dramatic affair. On lap seven, Van der Mark crashed out with a highside. Philipp Öttl (GER / Ducati), who was right behind the Dutchman at the time, also hit the deck. The race was red flagged. However, shortly before the race was suspended, Scott skidded and crashed while running in the top ten. As the race restarted in the order at the last timing, Scott had to resume the remaining 14 laps from 14th place. A good restart allowed him to immediately gain places and he went on to finish tenth.
WorldSBK now has a few weeks off, before the European leg of the season gets underway with round three from 21st to 23rd April at Assen, Netherlands. BMW Motorrad Motorsport will travel to Barcelona (ESP) for tests during the break.
READ MOREScott Redding
(SP: 11 / R01: DNF / SP Race: 9 / R02: 10):
“In the last race, I was quite happy with the performance. I made one mistake in the first corner which cost me a couple of positions. I was a bit upset about it but the conditions were really tricky. It was again also a bit unfortunate because I crashed when there was the red flag and then they didn’t go back one complete lap so I went from eighth and I had to start from 14th. You know that from there it is already hard. I made a good start, I came up through the field a bit. But the field is so tight at the moment that it is really hard to make a difference. The lap times are very similar so I finished tenth. I was happy to finish the race; it was the first time that I felt more comfortable on the bike this year. I hope now that we can build on that for the rest of the season.”