News

On Friday at round nine of the season, Dominique Aegerter was among the fastest riders on track during both free practice sessions. In FP2, however, he impressed with incredibly strong consistency towards the end of the session to finish day one in Andalusia second fastest.

The World Championship’s paddock was greeted by a wide variety of weather situations in Jerez de la Frontera over the past few days. Heavy thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon were followed by a windy Thursday and, after overnight rain showers to Friday, the sky was mostly threateningly cloudy during the day. But it remained dry all day, with temperatures that were bearable.

Regardless of that, Dominique Aegerter did not let the disappointing outcome of last Sunday's MotoE™ World Cup get to him from the first practice lap. The professional motorcycle racer from the canton of Bern checked off everything as soon as he flipped the visor of his racing helmet shut on Friday morning. Aegerter started the race weekend with a respectable 1'43.034, parking his Dutch Ten Kate Team Yamaha YZF R6 in fifth place in FP1.

In similar conditions in free practice two in the afternoon, it took a severe run-up for the experienced 30-year-old rider before he really turned it on in the closing minutes and very clearly underlined his intentions for the world championship’s visit to the all-famous Circuito de Jerez with a series of fastest lap times. Aegerter pushed his lap time down by more than half a second, which meant best time in this session. He was just two tenths of a second off the fastest time of the day set by Germany's Philipp Öttl.

#77 Dominique AEGERTER (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha, Yamaha YZF R6)
FP1: P5 - 1´43.034 / FP2: P1 - 1´42.455

"I am happy to be back here and continue the work with the Ten Kate team. I missed them a lot last weekend when they were in Barcelona and I was in Misano. But it was nice to see that they did a good job. But that is history. Now we are here in Jerez, where I know the track very well. But so do most of the others. For me, though, I like Jerez incredibly much. The change from the MotoE bike to the Supersport bike was again no big deal, as I was able to ride my speed again straight away. Apart from that, it was a busy day. We have been busy with the gearing, as well as we spent a lot of time working with the different tyre options for this weekend."

"Although it was very cloudy all day, the conditions were very stable. The asphalt temperatures were always in the 30-degree range. But temperatures are expected to be much hotter for the races. Peaks of over 40 degrees should not be a big surprise, while it will be much cooler at the time of Superpole. Nevertheless, my crew did a fantastic job. In the morning we ended up fifth and, in the afternoon, we were the fastest, which meant P2 overall at the end of the day. But our ideal time would be even faster. So, there is still potential. That's why we have to continue as before so that we're on the front row after Superpole. For the races, on the other hand, the objective is the same as always, as we want to fight for victory or at least be on the podium."

#ESPWorldSBK - WorldSSP Combined Free Practice Times (FP1/FP2):
1 Philipp ÖTTL / GER / Kawasaki Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-6R / 1´42.249 (FP1)
2 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / Ten Kate Racing Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R6 / 1´42.455 +0.206 (FP2)
3 Manuel GONZALES / SPA / Yamaha ParkinGo Team / Yamaha YZF R6 / 1´42.681 +0.432 (FP2)

#ESPWorldSBK - WorldSSP Time Schedule for Saturday September 25th (CET):
10:25 - 10:45 Superpole
15:15 Race 1 (17 Laps - 75.191 km)