The first round of the Supersport World Championship began today at the Phillip Island Circuit in Australia. After the bad weather experienced during winter testing, riders Jeremy Alcona and Dominique Aegerter were finally able to get in some dry testing time earlier this week, while today they were out on track for free practice and Superpole.
In free practice, the Spaniard set a time of 1’33”016 while the Swiss rider put in a 1’33”556. In Superpole, which ran in higher temperatures, Alcoba was unable to improve on his earlier time (1’33”159) and placed nineteenth, which means a seventh row start for Saturday’s first race of the season. Aegerter (1’33”408) secured twenty-third position and a spot on the eighth row of the grid.
Manuel Puccetti
“The team and riders worked hard again today to find a good setting and fast pace. We’re still making up for the time lost during winter testing and I’m sure we’ll be competitive soon. It won’t be an easy race tomorrow having to start further back, but Alcoba and Aegerter will give it their best shot as always.”
Jeremy Alcoba
“We struggled today due to a lack of rear grip, and I finished nineteenth in the end, but both me and the bike have the potential to do a lot better. Now we need to analyse the data to make some improvements to the bike ahead of tomorrow’s first race. We’re using larger tyres here compared to last season and this doesn’t help us to be fast. Thanks to the team for their excellent work; despite starting further back on the grid, I’ll do my best to repay them with a good result.”
Dominique Aegerter
“The results we achieved today are far from what we want. We’re closing the gap to the front, but we still have our work cut out. I’m not yet comfortable on the bike and need more time to ride, work with the team and find a good setup. We’re all working as hard as we can and the improvements are coming. For tomorrow’s race, we’ll try to collect more important data and give it our all. We’ll see what happens.”
