BMW World Superbike Rider Michael van der Mark says he hasn’t lost speed after winning a double top five in the recent French round.
The Dutch rider enjoyed a solid start to the campaign, and was a regular top 10 visitors before his results began to move from round to Balaton Park.
However, he returned to Michael Van Der Mark’s form at Magny-Cours as he led BMW to fifth in the sprint race and the second feature contest.
He praised his team and kept pushing him while taking a jab with his suspicions.
“I think a lot of people said I lost it. Obviously I didn’t,” he told worldsbk.com.
“We worked hard with the team. There were a lot of discussions. We had a lot of tests. There were a lot of ideas.
“There’s also a good reset during summer holidays.
“It helps a lot and we sometimes think it’s very difficult and it’s good to have a good team behind you because they keep pushing you, keeping you working and they’ve always been calm.
“They believed in me and they knew speed was there too.
“So after today, I showed them again and showed them myself again.”
Van der Mark admits that he wasn’t confident enough to push the bike in Race 2, though he was about three seconds before winning the first podium of the season.
“I started sniffing it, and honestly, I was struggling with the bike a bit, but I wasn’t fully confident I wanted,” he added.
“So I had to find a way in the middle and certainly I tried. But after the weekend I really needed these points.”
Van der Mark won the Manny Course last year and will consider the final round as an opportunity for greater results after reaching the podium at Geres in 2024.