Kawasaki WorldSSP Team riders Jeremy Alcoba and Dominique Aegerter took part in their first FIM Supersport World Championship race of the new season at the legendary Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, on Saturday 21 February.
Riding the latest WorldSSP spec Ninja ZX-6R 636, Alcoba had started the race from the sixth row of the grid, after he had been 19th quickest in Friday’s Superpole Qualifying session.
The Spanish rider, already a proven podium finisher during his rookie campaign for Kawasaki in 2025, moved upwards through the field in what was an 18-lap start-to-finish contest, with no mandatory pit stops for tyre changes. Jeremy’s tenth place earned him six valuable points at the first time of asking.
A double WorldSPP Champion of past seasons, Dominique had qualified 23rd,and would end up in that same position at the end of the 18-lap race. A technical issue at the end dropped him from 14th on the penultimate lap to 23rd at the end.
The second 18-lap WorldSBK Race of the PI weekend will take place on Sunday 22 February.
Manuel Puccetti
“The practices and qualifying were difficult, but we were able to finish top ten in Race 1 with Alcoba, while Aegerter was stopped by a technical problem at the very last corner, which denied him a points finish. Our potential is definitely higher, but we’re consistently improving and will soon reach the goals we’ve set ourselves.”
Jeremy Alcoba
“We have the first race of the season in our pocket. It is not what I expected from the pre-season tests and it is not the kind of speed we finished with last season, so there is simply still a lot of work to do. But we are looking forward and the team is doing a really good job. We were struggling a bit in the race with rear grip. My start was good but in the first corner I had a little touch and that made me lose a lot of positions. To recover them was hard, but I was fighting in the second and third group. I tried to maintain my P1 position at the end, which is not bad, but not enough. I will try to make a better start in Race Two and with a little bit more grip we can make one or two steps forward.”
Dominique Aegerter
“That was for sure not the race we expected, but we got a lot of data. We made it to all 18 laps but we got a little bit unlucky in the last corner, when the bike turned off. We need to find out what happened, exactly, but we are improving every time and we are closer to the front guys with the lap times. We are missing some testing kilometres on the bike so we just need to ride and ride to improve. We are not so far but the results don’t show that so well. On Sunday, we will have another chance and for sure in the second race I will try to get a good result and my first points with Kawasaki.”
