Michael van der Mark has high hopes PATA Yamaha WorldSBK has made a ste꧟p forward with its R1 following last week’s in-season test, with the podium his clear target for this weekend’s latest rouꦬnd at Jerez.

The Dutchman enjoys a favourable record in S🔯pain, scoring a podium on his maiden WorldSBK visit there in 2015, while the circuit is a popular attraction for the teams during the winter for testing.

Never🤡theless, this year’s event – which marks a return to the venue after it was omitted from the 2018 calendar – is set to represent an entirely new challenge for the teams and riders by virtue of its mid-summer scheduling.

With air temperatures alone set to peak well into the 30-degrees brac𒉰ket, coupled to a brand-new surface, van der Mark is hoping the gains made by the team will transfer from Misano despite the cool weather in Italy.

“Fortunately, we got a window of good weather on the second day of the Misano test and we managed to work our way through a lot of the test program, with the boys working hard to test as much as we could. Going b🧸ack to Jerez is always nice, as we do a lot of testing there in the winter.

“This year ꦕthere is a new surface again, so it will be interesting to see how the bike wi๊ll feel compared to the tests.

“I ♔feel really good ꧟with the bike at the moment and the base set-up has worked well at the last few tracks, so I think we can be really strong this weekend in Jerez. The podium is the target; we were close in Imola, but not quite close enough."