Kawasaki WorldSSP Team rider Jeremy Alcoba finished the first 18-lap race of the Balaton Park weekend in a strong fourth place, after starting from eighth place on the grid. Dominique Aegerter (Kawasaki WorldSSP Team) finished Race One inside the points, in 12th position.
In warm and sunny conditions on Friday 1 May in Hungary, Alcoba finished 5th in FP1, with Aegerter 27th.
Later on the opening day of action, after Superpole Qualifying, Alcoba would earn a third row start in eighth place, while Aegerter would finish 19th.
During Race One, Alcoba made real progress through the whole 18 laps, setting the second-best lap of the race as he pushed on towards the leading group. His determination and pace paid off well on the final lap, as he got to within 0.770 seconds of the race winner, Valentin Debise. He was just under 0.4 seconds from a podium placing on his Ninja ZX-6R 636.
A late fight between the leading trio at the very end of the race aided Alcoba’s last lap efforts to a degree, but in setting the second-fastest lap of the whole race, it was already clear that Jeremy was riding at a very high tempo around the intense 4.075km-long Balaton Park circuit.
Aegerter also made improvements from his starting position in Race One, going from the seventh row to 12th place, earning four more championship points in the process.
There will be one more 18-lap Balaton Park race on Sunday, 3 May, with Alcoba starting from second place this time around, while Aegerter will launch from 20th place on the grid.
Manuel Puccetti
“Alcoba had a great race today, finishing fourth, just 0.7 seconds shy of the win. Had he overtaken the rider in front of him earlier, he probably could have fought for the win, but we’re satisfied with the result. Tomorrow, Jeremy will start from second on the grid, having set the second-fastest time today, and this makes us optimistic for the outcome of Race 2. Aegerter finished in the points after a strong comeback, confirming the progress he and the entire team have made”.
Jeremy Alcoba
“I am really happy about today’s opening race and to finish in fourth place. We had really good pace and made a good ‘comeback’ because at one point we were 1.5 seconds back. We recovered some of the gap to the guys in front on the last four laps. I did not expect this pace, because it was really strong from the guys out front and also from me, but we were struggling in some parts of the track. I think the team and I did a really good job, so I am super-happy. Tomorrow we start from second place on the grid because we did the second-fastest lap of Race One. The weekend has been super-good, so why not end with a good result, even better than today?”
Dominique Aegerter
“My starting position of P19 was not the best for the race start, but I tried my best. We finished P12 and we tried hard to improve and be fast, but I am still struggling a little bit in the feeling to the bike. There are a few setting changes we will try tomorrow, in the warm-up. We will only have ten minutes but for everybody it will be the same. I hope we can improve tomorrow in the second Balaton race to be closer to the front guys. Jeremy did a great job today so congrats to him. We need to be where he is to fight at the front, but I still need some time to try to improve.”
