Michael van der Mark set the fifth fastest overall time in today’s two practice sessions for the fourth round of the 2015 World Superbike championship at Assen in the Netherlands. The 22-year-old Pata Honda rider fired his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP around the 4.542km Assen circuit in a time of 1m36.525s as British rider Chaz Davies topped the timesheets.

Van der Mark, who scored one year ago at Assen his first World Supersport win, is aware that despite the promising results, there are still some things to be sorted out come race day.

“I’m really, really happy with today, which was my first day at Assen on a superbike. I felt really good from the first laps this morning and the CBR was working very well” van der Mark commented.” I am happy with P5 at the end because we have a lot of things still to improve, particularly stability on the exit of corners. In the last session with the new tyre in the rear, the front was already on the limit so I couldn’t really improve my lap time but, with lots to work on, I’m happy with that first day here on the Fireblade.”