News

At the end of the two-day test in Barcelona, Dominique Aegerter pulled in a very hot lap to end up in sixth place.

The test on Thursday and Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya proved out to mainly prepare for the race weekend at the same location at the first weekend of May. Complicated track conditions combined with heavy tyre wear were a hurdle for most of the participants to make more significant progress with their race bike in terms of set-up work.

The 32-year-old Dominique Aegerter and his experienced crew from the Italian GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team therefore used their track time primarily to try out and evaluate further developments to the Yamaha R1 and to improve the bike's ergonomics. However, after an early improvement in his lap time by somewhat of two tenths of a second compared to Thursday, it took until the closing stages in the afternoon before Aegerter concluded the test as the best Yamaha rider thanks a strong lap time.

The next event of the FIM Superbike World Championship will be the visit of the series to the historic TT Circuit of Assen in the north of the Netherlands in three weeks’ time.

#77 Dominique AEGERTER (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team, Yamaha YZF R1)
P6 - 1´40.857 +0.398 (180 Laps in total)

"It was a very intensive test; we did a lot of laps on both days. Today we also worked with both bikes. This included trying out different tyres and at the end a time attack with the qualifier, which went well. It was a bit of a shame that there was no real long run, because the drop of the tyres were huge after about ten laps. At this track it is very difficult to work in this respect because the bike behaves very differently due to the drop. So, it was laborious to push the bike further. Nevertheless, we have made improvements in some areas, for example, my seating position on the bike. That required changes to the handlebars and footrests. There were also new parts on the side of the tank and a new hump."

"Barcelona is not an easy track for testing. Still, it was two important days to understand some things, even if it was difficult to work in the right direction because you cannot put in a new tyre for every run. But yesterday we did some runs, with a total of four sets of tyres that we used during the day. In doing so, we found that out from the third run at the latest with the same tyre it becomes difficult to say anything, if not already on the second exit. Today we also made such an attempt, where I was up to two or three seconds slower in the third run. It is enormously difficult to give good indications there. But apart from that, I am happy with the work we have done and what we have achieved over these two days."

Combined Practice Times WorldSBK-Test Barcelona:
1 Alvaro BAUTISTA / SPA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´40.459
2 Iker LECOUNA / SPA / Team HRC / Honda CBR1000 RR-R / 1´40.521 +0.062
3 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / 1´40.659 +0.200
6 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1 / 1´40.857 +0.398