Having qualified in ninth place in Tissot-Superpole 2 on Saturday on his last weekend with the Honda World Superbike Team, Michael van der Mark finished in the same position in Race 1, then on Sunday he finished in 11^th in his last appearance on the Honda CBR1000RR SP.

In the initial Race 2 start Van der Mark got a great launch off row three but ended up losing several positions as he was pushed wide at turn one. The former WorldSSP Champion made up some ground and by lap eight he was back to ninth place.

When the restarted race got underway after the red flag, van der Mark moved up to eighth place but could not hold on to it and finished 11^th in his last race with the team before his move to Yamaha for 2017.

The final standings see Van der Mark and his 2016 Honda teammate Nicky Hayden in fourth and fifth places, respectively.

“I really good start in the first race but I had a big moment in turn one as I got hit from behind,” reflected Van der Mark. “I was way back again and was struggling to get up to speed. After the red flag we changed a little bit the bike setup for the second start and I got away quite well again, but even with new tyres I struggled to find the right grip. It was quite frustrating, because I thought we would have made quite a step forward but thing simply didn’t work today.”

“Of course, I wish the season and my journey with Honda would have ended with a better result, but fourth in the championship is a great achievement and I want to thank all the guys for the hard work they have done. I think we can be really happy with what we’ve done this year.”