BMW substitute rider Ilya Mikhalchik teaches his brand colleagues a lesson at Aragon on Saturday and puts himself in the running for a place in the World Superbike Championship
With an eighth-place finish, BMW substitute rider Ilya Mikhalchik put himself in strong contention at the opening round of the World Superbike Championship. The IDM champion was the best BMW rider in race one, leaving Scott Redding, Loris Baz and Eugene Laverty well behind. Things did not go according to plan for Mikhalchik in the two Sunday races. A crash in the sprint race and a 15th place were the results of the final day in MotorLand.
With his performance in Superpole and race one, however, Mikhalchik left a lasting impression. “I’m definitely taking more positives than negatives from my first WSBK weekend,” commented the replacement for Michael van Mark.
“It was mainly about me filling in for Michael and we showed strong results in Superpole and the first race. That was especially good because we couldn’t test so much before,” reports the Ukrainian, who only had the test in Barcelona and the two days of testing before the season opener.
“Sunday was not our day,” regrets the BMW reserve driver. “I would have liked to continue as I did on Saturday. But in the Superpole race I couldn’t really push from the beginning. Then I made a small mistake and crashed. Thanks to the team who completely rebuilt the bike within two hours. That’s how we made it onto the grid for race two.”
“The bike actually didn’t feel bad at all, but the track temperatures were too high and it was difficult for me to get into a rhythm,” Mikhalchik states the problem in the final race. “After a few laps my feeling got better. My pace would have been enough for seventh or eighth place, but it was too late. I rode alone and caught up with the top 10 group. “
“These results certainly don’t make me happy after a strong Saturday. But this is racing and every race can be different. We have now gathered a lot of information for BMW to further improve the bike and put it in top positions in the races,” explains the BMW substitute rider. It remains to be seen whether Michael van der Mark will be able to ride at his home race in Assen or whether Mikhalchik will step in again in a week and a half.
