In a season that has seen Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea dominate the spoils in 2019, Michael van der Mark and Yamaha got their chance to shine in Jerez with a first win of the year for𝄹 both on a lucrative weekend.

The only rider capable of setting lap times comparable with Alvaro Bautista, the Dutchman finished second behin🍬d the Spaniard in race one and the Superpole Race before emerging as a beneficiary of the Ducati man’s exit in race two.

Not that his win should be classed as merely fortuitous, van der Mark upsetting💖 the formbook by comfortably seeing off Rea to win by three seconds.

His third career WorldSBK win and a first of the season for the Pata Yamaha team, the 26-year-old hailed the team for the strides in bringing the R1 up to a high🌠er level this weekend.

“What an amazing day! I was a bit upset with myself in the Sprint Race b꧑ecause I tried some optimistic overtakes that lost me a lot of time but in the end, I managed to finish second, which put me on the front row for Race 2.

“I got a good star🍷t but then Johnny passed me quite quickly and I was happy to sit behind him and conserve my tyres after Alvaro crashed out. But his pace wasn’t quite what I wanted to do and I could see the group behind were starting to catch us, so I decided to put in a pass and see if I could pull away, which I did.

“It’s been an incredible weekend and the bike has been great, with only very small changes required. I🐽’m really happy with the progress ma👍de with the bike, so many thanks to the team and to Yamaha for all their hard work.”

Scoring 54 points for his w﷽eekend efforts – only eight points shy of the maximum – van der Mark has surged past team-mate Alex Lowes for third i🌼n the standings and is now 46 points clear.