News

Dominique Aegerter had to give it his all in Superpole to get back on track at the technical circuit on Lake Balaton after a difficult free practice session. Starting from the seventh row on Saturday, however, promises to be another tough battle for the Kawasaki rider.
 
The fact that temperatures in the morning that so chilly in Hungary at this time of year likely came as a surprise to most people in the paddock of the production-based championship. At least the strong, icy wind of the past few days has stopped. So, the first practice sessions on the twisty Balaton Park Circuit took place in sunny weather and good conditions.

For Dominique Aegerter, however, it was a difficult day. During free practice session late in the morning, the 35-year-old Swiss rider couldn’t find his rhythm and finished no higher than 27th. The 2.7-second gap was also hard to swallow.

Duzring this afternoon’s Superpole, it took Aegerter also a while to post competitive lap times. His 19th-place finish at the end of the 40-minute time attack fell well short of his expectations, even though he more than halved the gap to the front-runners and set a personal best that was 2.3 seconds faster than his time from the morning.

#77 Dominique AEGERTER (Kawasaki WorldSSP Team, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636)
Superpole: P19 - 1´43.337 +1.287 | Provisional Grid position: 19

«We had a difficult start to the weekend — more difficult than expected. This morning, we were well behind the pace of the top riders. One reason for this was the bike’s handling; especially the turning was an issue hardly to cope with. However, the team worked hard for Superpole, and I’ve also made significant improvements in my riding at this technical track. Our gap to today’s pole time of 1.2 seconds is still too big, and I’m disappointed with the result, as I’ll be starting from P19 only tomorrow.»

«We face a busy evening now, where we’ll be working hard to improve in a few areas. First and foremost, we need to find something we can try out during tomorrow morning’s warm-up that will hopefully help us take a step forward. For the race, that still means pushing as hard as possible and trying to set a good lap time that will allow us to move further up the grid for Sunday’s race. Of course, we want to score some good points, but right now we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Nevertheless, we remain positive, and I’ll do my best to turn the situation around. Thank you all for your support.»

#HungarianWorldSBK - WorldSSP Free Practice:
1 Jaume MASIA / SPA / Orelac Racing Verdnatura / Ducati Panigale V2 / 1´42.965
2 Matteo FERRARI / ITA / WRP Racing / Ducati Panigale V2 / 1´43.021 +0.056
3 Can ÖNCÜ / TUR / Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing / Yamaha YZF-R9 / 1´43.173 +0.208
…
27 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / Kawasaki WorldSSP Team / Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636 / 1´45.705 +2.740

#HungarianWorldSBK - WorldSSP Superpole:
1 Albert ARENAS / SPA / AS BLU CRU Racing Team / Yamaha YZF R9 / 1´42.050
2 Can ÖNCÜ / TUR / Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing / Yamaha YZF-R9 / 1´42.255 +0.205
3 Matteo FERRARI / ITA / WRP Racing / Ducati Panigale V2 / 1´42.354 +0.304 
…
19 #77 Dominque AEGERTER / SWI / Kawasaki WorldSSP Team / Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636 / 1´43.337 +1.287

#HungarianWorldSBK - WorldSSP Time Schedule for Saturday May 2^nd (CEST):
Warm Up: 09:20 – 09:30
Race 1: 14:00 (18 Laps – 73.350 km)