Michael van der Mark and Lorenzo Zanetti each had to battle hard for points in today’s ninth round World Supersport race at Silverstone in the UK, which was won by Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu.

Starting from sixth place on the grid, 20-year-old van der Mark got a steady start and had climbed to fifth before his Honda CBR600RR touched another rider’s machine, forcing the Dutch ace off the track at the fast Copse corner.

Van der Mark re-joined the race in 22nd position but showed impressive pace and control to pass many riders on his way back to the top ten.

After finishing ninth, Van der Mark said: “I made a stupid mistake when I had good pace and we could have been fighting for the podium. I am really sorry for the mistake, but the pace was great and we had found a good direction with the bike this weekend. I was really angry when I rejoined the race and I was really fast in this part. I hope that we can be back on the podium at the next race in Nurburgring.”

Lorenzo Zanetti had his own problems to contend with, not least of which were injuries sustained in his 255kph crash at Moscow Raceway in Russia two weeks ago. The 26-year-old Italian had thought it might be impossible to participate at Silverstone but sheer determination saw him take enough points to retain his fifth place in the overall championship standings.

“I am really, really tired, but quite happy with this result,” Zanetti explained. “Before this weekend, I thought I would not be able to race here so 11th position is a bit like a victory. I raced for myself and for Andrea Antonelli and now I have a month for recovery. The last two weeks have been difficult and now I am looking forward to a rest. I want to arrive at Nurburgring in good condition so that I can finish the season really strongly.”

“Lorenzo’s result is almost more than we could have hoped for because of his injuries,” explained technical cor-ordinator Pieter Breddels. “He’s quite confident that if he had been fit he could have battled nearer the front. The break will do him some good but he did a great job here today. 

“Michael had terrific pace but went off the track after a little mistake. He was passing a lot of people and doing really fast lap times after that, when he was as fast as the two guys at the front. The speed was there to take him to the podium but we’ll have to take what happened and try again in Germany.”