Some people, not least his previous team, were shocked that Michael van der Mark left his factory Yamaha WorldSBK berth to join the previously struggling BMW Motorrad squad beside Tom Sykes.

The BMW M1000RR is a heavily changed beast from 2020’s S1000RR, although you have to know what to look for to tell - other than the gigantic winglets. After a tough start to his weekend, and 15th place in Superpole, VDM was 11th, then fifth then fifth again in the Sunday races.

Iffy conditions played a part in everybody’s Sunday at Motorland but in winter testing the BMW was not looking perfect quite yet. Clearly, VDM was confident on Sunday, confident to lead a race at one time.

“I saw the opportunity - I was like, ‘I have to lead just to show everyone and be on television',” the Dutchman told bikesportnews.com. “It was a good Sunday. Start with warm-up, it was the first time I rode a BMW M1000RR in the wet and from the first few corners it felt really good. Had a lot of confidence. Just spinning a bit, but anyway, I was having fun. So the warm-up already gave some confidence.

"Then Superpole race we go out and there’s a dry line and you’re like, I wish it was wet! But I saw it was a dry line and by the time we got to the grid, it was dry. It was not raining. I said to the guys, just put some slicks in. Let’s take a little bit of a gamble. Then just before we had to go it started raining again.

"I went, maybe this is the wrong choice. But the first lap I passed so many people already on the exits of corners. The rain stayed a bit consistent and the line was getting a bit bigger. It was still tricky but I think at the end it was the right choice. For me, it was the right choice. I had to come from that far back and finish fifth in the Superpole race was quite good.”

In the final Sunday race, race two in official terms after the short Superpole race, VDM had earned a second row start for his fifth place earlier in the day.

“The best thing for us was to start on the second row of the grid for race two,” he said. “Everybody was really proud of me this morning to make the right and a risky gamble, but in the afternoon I was a bit of a pussy because I did exactly the same like nearly everyone. (Intermediates/Intermediates).

"But I left pit lane and the track was really wet. Then we did a warmup lap and there was a big, dry line. I thought, Scott made the right decision. Let’s see how far we can go. We had a good start. I enjoyed this race so much. We had some good battles.

"I could fight with the other guys, with Johnny and Alex. All the bikes were quite even. We had some nice battles. I was asking so much from the tyres I knew at a certain point I was going to drop, but luckily it was only at the end but Tom had to pass me as well.”

Asked if there were not spotters out on track, giving info back to to team in the pits about changing track conditions, VDM thought more of them may be a good idea, but the decision is still a tence one on the grid.

“Yeah, there’s also this thing that you make a decision and sometimes you just have to stick with it. For example, this morning the first part of the track it was not raining, but when we arrived in the last corner it was raining all race there. So you have to make a decision and for me slicks was anyway better.

Sometimes it’s also better to make just one decision so everyone stays calm. I think today the race two it was not the wrong decision. It was just the right one and could have been a little bit better if we took slicks.”

In battles with the two main Kawasaki riders VDM was asked if that is an area of instant advantage for him?

“This is quite funny because when it’s dry it’s the worst place for us.mBut today I saw in these conditions I was really strong in that area. We changed the bike a bit compared to yesterday, so I think if we had a fully dry track we would have improved as well. For sure, it was not the strongest point of the bike but today in race two it was a really strong point. I need this feeling in the fully dry as well.”

The question is can the BMW be a regular podium cable bike in 2021. The answer was, “Yeah. I think the potential is there, it's just we need to get it out of the package because we have quite a lot of power but we cannot get it on the ground. This is one thing we improved already a lot this weekend. The other thing is like I said before, I struggled a bit with stopping and turning of the bike in faster corners.

"That’s where we have to improve. For example, races like today with the intermediate and strange conditions, the Kawasakis are strong in every condition and I think today they were stronger, but we could battle with them. So I think there is a lot of potential. We showed a lot of potential today.”
Next up is a very different circuit in Estoril, in a few day’s time, for round two."