After a long and intensive week of racing at the season opener in Australia, Dominique Aegerter scored important points for the championship with seventh and tenth place today.
Today's glorious late-summer Sunday will be remembered by all teams and riders for a while, as it was an eventful day, even if there was a long wait in the afternoon. After an accident in a frame race, the track had to be cleaned, which took a good two hours.
Everything was still going according to plan until shortly after midday. The Superpole race brought the first race action, which ended with a bravely fought seventh place for Dominique Aegerter. The start of the second main race of the weekend was then delayed by more than two hours. After the start, it only took three laps before the race had to be stopped due to an accident. The race was shortened to eleven laps for the restart, which was not enough for Aegerter to finish higher than tenth. Although the 33-year-old saw the chequered flag in ninth place, he was relegated one position due to an overtaking manoeuvre under the yellow flag.
Ahead of the next race weekend in Barcelona in a month's time, the entire Superbike competition will meet a week earlier for a two-day test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
#77 Dominique AEGERTER (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK, Yamaha YZF R1)
Grid position 4 / Superpole Race: P7 / Grid position 7 / Race 2: P10
"It was a long and eventful day of racing. We practically had three sprint races today. The first, the Superpole race in the morning, began with a not-so-good start from P4 on the second row. But over time I was able to overtake a few riders and eventually finished sixth. In the afternoon, we had to wait a long time for the start of the second race. My start wasn't good again and I lost positions. We need to improve the starts and the first lap in the future, even though I usually have a good reaction when the lights go out. However, the race was stopped with the red flag. At the restart, I had to start from twelfth on the grid as I was in that position when the race was stopped."
"Starting from the fourth row is no easy task, because it's always difficult to fight with the guys in the midfield. What's more, the distance was shortened to eleven laps, and I wasn't able to improve my position as much as I would have liked by the end. At least I scored good points again with tenth place. Now I'm looking forward to the test in Barcelona, where I'm excited to see what we can do and how and where we can improve. Until then, I will give my body a break, but also train more, because this weekend was not easy for me after such a long time without my race bike. Finally, a big thank you to the team for their great work. They helped me incredibly wherever they could."
#AUSWorldSBK – WSBK Superpole:
1 Nicolo BULEGA / ITA / Auruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´27.916
2 Andrea IANNONE / ITA / Team GoEleven / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´28.154 +0.238
3 Alex LOWES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / 1´28.239 +0.323
4 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / 1´28.403 +0.487
#AUSWorldSBK – WSBK Superpole-Race (10 Laps):
1 Alex LOWES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / 15´00.995
2 Andrea LOCATELLI /ITA / Pata Prometeon Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R1 / +1.157
3 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / +1.738
7 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / +30.051
#AUSWorldSBK – WSBK Race 2 (11 Laps):
1 Alex LOWES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / 16´27.565
2 Alvaro BAUTISTA / SPA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / +0.048
3 Danilo PETRUCCI / ITA / Barni Spark Racing Team / Ducati Panigale V4R / +1.178
10 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / +5.152
WorldSBK Standing:
1 Alex LOWES / GBR / Kawasaki / 50
2 Nicolo BULEGA / ITA / Ducati / 41
2 Andrea LOCATELLI / ITA / Yamaha / 29
7 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / Yamaha / 20