Finishing eleventh in the first main race of the weekend in France, Dominique Aergerter narrowly missed his target but is pleased to report that he physically feels much better than before the summer break.
Dominique Aegerter made great progress on Saturday after some problems made life difficult for him in yesterday's fee practice sessions. A significant improvement in terms of lap times in the third free practice session in the morning initiated the turnaround. Although twelfth on the starting grid after Superpole did not meet his expectations, the 32-year-old Swiss put in a solid race in the afternoon in what was run in incredible hot conditions. The fact that none other than the world champion and current world championship leader Alvaro Bautista took tenth place he thought was safe from him on the last lap annoyed Aegerter a little bit.
On Sunday, the World Championship’s visit to at Magny-Cours will conclude with Superpole Race and the second main race. The start time for this has been moved to 15:15. ServusTV and Eurosport will be live on air.
#77 Dominique AEGERTER (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK, Yamaha YZF R1)
Grid position 12 / Race 1: P11
"After a unfortunate Friday, we had a better day today. In FP3 we could improve a lot in terms of me and the bike. But qualifying did not bring the starting position for the race that I wanted. We did not get beyond P12 on the grid, which was not ideal. My start was good, even though I could not really make up many positions. But I was always in the fight for a top-10 position. Towards the middle of the race, I thought that the group in front of us should be catchable. For this, I had a good feeling. But in the last two laps I noticed that someone was catching up very quickly from behind."
"Of course, it is a shame to lose tenth place on the last lap. But I had no chance against Bautista. But the most important thing is that I feel physically in very good shape. On the last race weekends my arm was certainly not in top shape and after more than five weeks without a race bike it was enormously important to finish the race and collect data for tomorrow. For tomorrow morning’s warm-up we have a few ideas that could help to improve the bike further. Hopefully in the sprint race we will be able to improve our grid position so that in the afternoon we are in a position to fight with the group that finished fifth to eighth today. That's our goal for tomorrow."
#FRAWorldSBK - Superpole:
1 Garrett GERLOFF / USA / Bonovo action BMW / BMW M1000 RR / 1´35.453
2 Alvaro BAUTISTA / SPA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´35.512 +0.059
3 Michael Ruben RINALDI / ITA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´35.820 +0.367
12 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / 1´36.557 +1.104
#FRAWorldSBK - Race 1 (20 Runden):
1 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / 32´31.978
2 Michale Ruben RINALDI / ITA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / +2.656
3 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / +4.773
11 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / +14.921
WorldSBK Standing:
1 Alvaro BAUTISTA / SPA / Ducati / 433
2 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / Yamaha / 378
3 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki / 267
9 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / Yamaha / 119
#FRAWorldSBK - Time Schedule for Sunday September 10th (CEST):
09:00 - 09:15 Warm Up
11:00 Superpole-Race (10 Laps - 44.110 km)
15:15 Race 2 (21 Laps - 92.631 km)