News

Dominique Aegerter started this morning in Barcelona with fastest lap time in FP3 and then, he was even faster in Superpole than last year, but had to settle for eighth place at the end of the first main race.

The 33-year-old Dominique Aegerter experienced a first race day full of emotions at the second stop of the series at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. After the Yamaha rider had set fastest lap time in free practice three this morning, Aegerter improved by half a second in his time attack during Superpole. His best effort in 1:40.100 secured him sixth place on the second row of the grid, but he was unable to benefit from this in the race in the early afternoon. Aegerter initially dropped back a few places but made up two positions by the finish.

On Sunday, Superpole race is set for 11:00 am and the second main race of the weekend from 02:00 pm are on the program. ServusTV Online will broadcast both races live, as will the "ServusTV On" app and the official WorldSBK website. On free-to-air television, ServusTV will show a recording from 16:45 and Eurosport 1 from 19:00.

#77 Dominique AEGERTER (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK, Yamaha YZF R1)
Grid position 6 / Race 1: P8

"In general, it was a positive day, which started very well with first place in the third practice session. Seeing myself at the top of the timesheet was not only very nice, but also a good motivation for me and the whole team. In qualifying, I was faster than last year's lap record. But there were a few other riders who were even faster. The pole time of 1:39.4 was great. Nevertheless, sixth spot on the grid was a good starting position for the race and my start was also okay, although I was not able to defend it till the first corner. Unfortunately, I dropped back to tenth place on the first lap."

"From the middle of the race, it was all about survival, because tire drop badly. To give you a better understanding: in qualifying I did a 1:40.1 with the soft qualifying tyre and towards the end of the race I was only doing 1:45s. That makes a big difference to ride like that on this track. But we will work on improving that and also being stronger in the first laps to be better positioned later on. Towards the end, we should be able to fight for the top five. I think that would have been possible today. But we still have to improve, and we will try again tomorrow. A big thank you to the team for their good work, and also to all the sponsors and fans for their support."

#CatalanWorldSBK – WSBK Superpole:

1 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW M 1000 RR / 1´39.489
2 Nicolo BULEGA / ITA / Auruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´39.591 +0.102
2 Andrea IANNONE / ITA / Team GoEleven / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´39.799 +0.310
6 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / 1´40.100 +0.611

#CatalanWorldSBK – WSBK Race 1 (20 Laps):
1 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW M 1000 RR / 34´19.817
2 Nicolo BULEGA / ITA / Auruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / +0.868
3 Alvaro BAUTISTA / SPA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / +5.338
8 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / +12.329

WorldSBK Standing:
1 Nicolo BULEGA / ITA / Ducati / 61
2 Alex LOWES / GBR / Kawasaki / 60
3 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / BMW / 43
8 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / Yamaha / 27

#CatalanWorldSBK - Time Schedule for Sunday March 24th (CET):
09:00 - 09:10 Warm Up
11:00 Superpole-Race (10 Laps - 46.570 km)
14:00 Race 2 (20 Laps - 93.410 km)