Day two at the traditional Donington Park circuit in England was doubly pleasing for Dominique Aegerter. Fifth in Superpole, he started the first main race of the weekend from the second row, where he collected important points with a solid top 10 finish.
On day two of the World Championship’s visit to the East Midlands in England, the weather hardly changed compared to Friday. Despite heavy cloud cover, there was once again no rain. From Dominique Aegerter's point of view, however, a change was already apparent during free practice three. The 33-year-old Yamaha rider ended up in sixth place, which raises expectations for Superpole, in which the best grid positions will be fought for.
In this 15-minute time chase, Aegerter was one of the contenders for a place on the front row, as he was in third place at times. In his final attempt, he improved to a 1:25.592, which ultimately meant fifth place on the starting grid. Aegerter was unable to capitalize on this at the start of the race in the afternoon and initially even dropped out of the top 10. With a lot of fighting spirit, however, he worked his way up to eighth place at the line. After what was a gruelling Misano weekend, today's results were good for his self-confidence.
On Sunday, Aegerter and his GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team have two more opportunities to take home more points from England. First up on the program is Superpole Race for a sprint distance of 10 laps at 12:00 CEST. This will be followed by the second race over the long distance at 15:00 CEST. Detailed live coverage will be available on ServusTV and Eurosport 2.
#77 Dominique AEGERTER (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK, Yamaha YZF R1)
Grid position 5 / Racee1: P8
«We were able to improve our speed a bit today, as you could already see in FP3 in the morning, but Superpole afterwards was really good because I managed to set a very fast lap time. However, that's a bit of a drop compared to Toprak, because his lap time was incredibly fast. Nevertheless, we were able to secure a grid position on the second row. That was certainly very positive. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to ride as aggressively as I would have liked on the first lap of the race. As a result, I was once again easy prey for some of my rivals although, I really tried and gave it my all, but I couldn't do any better. We still have to work on this point.»
«In general, we have to find a bit more grip by tomorrow. That was a bit lacking today, even though I fought a tough battle with Van der Mark right to the end. I managed a tough overtaking manoeuvre on the last lap, thanks to which I ended up in eighth place. This position is not where we want to be. But after Misano we needed a valuable scoring result and points again. Nevertheless, we can build on this result. I want to finish tomorrow's Superpole Race in the top six, which is very important for the second race. The weather was also kind to us today and hopefully it will be the same tomorrow. Finally, I would like to thank the many fans who came today.»
#UKWorldSBK – WSBK Superpole:
1 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW M 1000 RR / 1´24.629
2 Nicolo BULEGA / ITA / Auruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´25.202 +0.573
3 Scott REDDING / GBR / Bonovo action BMW Racing Team / BMW M 1000 RR / 1´25.406 +0.777
5 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / 1´25.528 +0.899
#UKWorldSBK – WSBK Race 1 (23 Laps):
1 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW M 1000 RR / 33´16.535
2 Alex LOWES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / +11.384
3 Alvaro BAUTISTA / SPA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / +13.167
8 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / +24.648
WorldSBK Standing:
1 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / BMW / 204
2 Nicolo BULEGA / UTA / Ducati / 171
3 Alvaro BAUTISTA / SPA / Ducati / 171
10 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / Yamaha / 54
#UKWorldSBK - Time Schedule for Sunday July 14th (CEST):
10:00 - 10:10 Warm Up
12:00 Superpole Race (10 Laps – 40.230 km)
15:00 Race 2 (23 Laps - 92.529 km)