Dominique Aegerter had the best result of his WorldSSP comeback season so far in Race One at Assen, securing sixth place. His team-mate Jeremy Alcoba was a strong ninth in what was a highly competitive opening race.
On Friday 17 April, Dominique had qualified 11th on his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636 machine, and his team-mate Jeremy was eventually 14th fastest over a single lap of the 4.542km circuit. This left Aegerter with a fourth row start, while Alcoba launched from the fifth row.
The opening race, held in dry conditions but with spots of rain appearing at one stage, was a classic event in its own right at a classic circuit.
After running at the head of the second group of riders, a consistently strong pace and some issues within the leading group allowed Dominique and five other riders to close in over the final laps, to the point whereby the top ten riders finished within two seconds of race winner Jaume Masia.
An integral part of the chasing group, and then the eventual leading bunch, Alcoba would cross the line in ninth place, but only 1.690 seconds from the race win.
One final Assen WorldSSP race remains to be run, on Sunday 19 April, once more over 18 laps of this evocative circuit in the Netherlands.
Manuel Puccetti – Team Principal
“Both our riders ran a great race today, making a good recovery. Aegerter was able to latch on to the leading group in the final stages, bringing the chasing group with him, which included a tough Alcoba. A good step forward, which leaves me confident ahead of tomorrow’s race.”
Jeremy Alcoba
“I am happy and unhappy about the first race at Assen. This is the first time that I am not the first Kawasaki rider in the results, so we have something to improve for Race Two. Also, I am happy because even though I missed some speed through the whole race, I was around one-and-a-half seconds from the winner. So, the gap was really close. I enjoyed the race a lot; it was a lot of fun, but I’m not happy because I struggled a lot when I was trying to manage the tyre for the last part. When I tried to attack and catch them, I did not have grip. So, yes, this is where we need to improve. I think it will be a good race tomorrow, even though we will start 16th and not 14th. But if we have a really good start like we had today, I think we can fight for – why not – the podium. Thanks to the team for all the work.”
Dominique Aegerter
“We had a great race, but there was a difficult choice for the tyres on the grid. The team and I made the right choice. There was a big fight with a lot of riders, and there were small drops of rain in the middle of the race, so you couldn’t touch the white lines. We can take this result home today and we can start the second race from P5, which is great. I hope it continues like this, so we can be close to the riders in front. We need to try to make a similar result on Sunday to say that we are now there. Big thanks to the team because they were great and they worked hard. I hope the better weather will stay with us tomorrow.”
