Pata Honda’s World Supersport championship leader Michael van der Mark finished second in today’s seventh-round race at Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ in Italy, his sixth successive podium finish, which gives him a 28-point lead in the series as it enters the second half of the season.

The 21-year-old Dutch rider got a good start from the front row of the grid but his race almost ended at the beginning of lap three when another rider ran wide at Misano’s first turn and re-joined the track, almost colliding with van der Mark. The Pata Honda rider took evasive action but lost a position before beginning a charge back to race leader and eventual winner Jules Cluzel.

Van der Mark’s Pata Honda team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti was in the leading group for the early part of the race and held a lonely fifth place for 12 of the 19 laps around the 4.226km Misano circuit. The Italian ace, 26, dropped back to sixth at the flag to match his grid position but moves up to fourth place in the championship standings with five rounds to go.