Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) had an eventful weekend at the Phillip Island circuit for the first round of the FIM WorldSBK Superbike World Championship, but the Swiss rider showed that he will have to be counted on...
11th in FP1 and 6th in FP2, the Moto2 world champion dropped to 13th at the end of free practice before qualifying brilliantly in 3rd position, thus ensuring him a front row start for his first participation in Superbike. Unfortunately for him, Race 1 took place entirely in the wet and saw him gradually lose places up to 13th position.
Dominique Aegerter : " I really enjoyed Superpole. I was delighted with my time, and to qualify on the front row was incredible. Then came the challenge of my first WorldSBK race in the rain. We don't have data on wet conditions at this circuit, so it was tricky. The first few laps were good, but then I had a little drop in tire performance and I started to lose grip at the rear. We will work tonight to understand what happened but I also think we had too much power for these conditions. But I haven't been the best driver in the rain in recent years either. The result is a bit disappointing because I wanted to be in the top 10, but anyway we got some points, and we will continue to do our best tomorrow to get a good result, hoping for a Superpole Race and a Race 2 in the dry. »
Sunday began with the warm up session, where the number 77 of the GYTR GRT Yamaha showed good pace to finish the session in 7th position. During the 10-lap Superpole race, the Swiss driver was in a solid 5th position after setting the fastest lap of the race, when he was mowed down by his teammate Remy gardner, both drivers being forced to retire.
Dominique Aegerter was therefore eager to show his potential in Race 2. Starting from 10th place on the grid, he got off to a good start and maintained his position, before attempting an attack on Jonathan Rhea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) penalizing for both drivers. Coming back in force in the last stages of the race, and author of a superb maneuver in the last lap on Jonathan Rhea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), the native of Rohrbach crossed the finish line in 7th position.
Dominique Aegerter : " It was a weekend full of emotions, which started, of course, with the incredible Superpole session where I qualified on the front row. Today we had dry conditions and we were confident in our pace. Unfortunately, in the Superpole race I was taken out while fighting for first place. It's the race, these things happen, Remy didn't do that on purpose, and we move on. It wasn't easy starting from 10th place in the last race, but we still managed to come back well. I could only overtake in turns 4 and 10, because if I overtook in turn 10, they would pass me again on the next straight. I sent Rea a little wide at turn 10 on the first lap. It can happen, it's a very difficult turn. I'm racing against the world's best drivers in the highest category, and some of them are very experienced. I was able to show that I was very fast. We learned a lot, and the team worked well this weekend. We are ready for Indonesia, where we hope to be fast once again. »
At the end of this Australian round, Dominique Aegerter is 11th in the general classification, with 12 points, 50 less thanAlvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
WSBK Superbike Phillip Island Superpole Course: classification
WSBK Superbike Phillip Island Race 2: standings
Credit rankings: WorldSBK.com
