Hamilton was too fast in super bike test

World Superbike rider Michael van der Mark says he had to work on making Lewis Hamilton go slower on two wheels in a recent test day at Jerez. The five-time Formula 1 world champion was reported to suffer a minor crash while testing WSBK machinery last week.

Hamilton was in action with Yamaha riders Van der Mark and Alex Lowes in Spain and later revealed that two-wheeled action was closer to his heart than the four-wheel world which he has dominated.

The Briton's bravery was apparently on show in Jerez, where Van der Mark's main priority was teaching Hamilton greater control.

"Lewis already did two track days on his bike [before] and the people of his team were a little bit concerned because of his speed," Van der Mark told Motorsport.

"He was very fast but he didn't have a riding style. He had lots of lean angle, so the initiative came a bit from his team that he'd get a few tips from professionals.

Looks like Lewis Hamilton still had fun despite a reported crash in a superbike run in Jerez...#F1 #WSBK

(???? @LewisHamilton IG) pic.twitter.com/ArvO4bE4jn — GP Fans Global (@GPFansGlobal) December 3, 2018

"During the first day I was alone with Lewis and on the second day my teammate Alex Lowes joined us.

"On the first day I was only trying to make him go a bit slower. I had to stop him, he's not afraid at all and he tried to take corners as fast as with his car.

"During the second day we worked a lot on his style.

"Even if it's just for fun, he was so motivated to learn. He asked loads of things and that was special to see.

"You see it's fun for him, but he goes all the way. He wants to do it right and wanted to learn as much as possible."

The Dutchman stopped short of tipping Hamilton for a future move to a two-wheeled championship.

He added: "You see he's not afraid at all. You also see that he doesn't have any doubt, you see a lot of riders who have a little doubt, but he's going all the way if he decides to do it that way.

"That's the same in a car, that's just his natural talent. He can ride a bike for sure - I don't know how much faster he can go.

"I know he can be much faster but it's difficult to predict what he could do on a bike.

"He has only ridden four days now and he was about seven seconds slower than us. With that he's faster than most other track day riders.

"You can see he has a special talent, but I don't know if he wants to do that [full-time]."

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