News

After a pleasant start to the second Spielberg weekend, the experienced Swiss rider suffered a setback in Saturday's qualifying session.

On day two at Styria’s picturesque Red Bull Ring, Dominique Aegerter had a hard time to reach his level of performance he impressed with previously. Already during the final free practice shortly before lunch time, he struggled to rebuild his meanwhile good feeling for the Japanese NTS racing machine.

#77 Dominique AEGERTER (NTS RW Racing GP, NTS), Grid position 28th - 1´30.451 (3/10):

"In FP3 this morning we improved slightly. But I quickly realized that I did not feel comfortable to ride the bike as easy as it was in the previous sessions. In the afternoon it became very hot. The asphalt temperatures rose to 54 degrees. That was very unfavourable for us, because warmer conditions always give us a bit of a hard time. So, I was never able to get a good feeling with the bike in qualifying right from the beginning. As a result, I could not push as I wanted to or as I was able to do so on Friday. This session was to be our worst practice on these two weekends. I feel deeply sorry for the whole team because they always work incredibly hard to really develop all areas of the bike. But today it was up to the rider who could not get any more out of it."

"Sorry guys, this was not my qualifying. During those 15 minutes I could not get a proper feel for the bike or the conditions at any stage. I was initially thinking about getting into the pits. But with one stop we would have lost too much track time. So, I tried to compensate for these difficulties with my riding style or to follow other riders. But in the end, it never resulted in decent lap times. So, I am terribly sorry that we have to start from far down the order on Sunday. But tomorrow is a new day and I will fully concentrate on the task ahead. In the race I will certainly call up my 110 percent and try to fight for a good result. In my last Moto2 race with the RW Racing Team I want to say a decent farewell and pay back something for their commitment and trust. As well known, in three weeks at Misano I will start again in MotoE category."

#StyrianGP - Moto2™ Qualifying Results:
1 Aron CANET / SPA / Openbank Aspar Team / Speed Up / 1´28.787
2 Jorge MARTIN / SPA / Red Bull KTM Ajo / KALEX / 1´28.905 +0.116
3 Tetsuta NAGASHIMA / JPN / Red Bull KTM Ajo / KALEX / 1´29.157 +0.370
28 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / NTS RW Racing GP / NTS / 1´30.451 (Q1)