News

Dominique Aegerter and his GYTR GRT Yamaha Team are right on target after the first day of the two-day test at Phillip Island.

After a busy start to the final preparations for this weekend's World Championship opener at the small island two hours in the south of Melbourne, 32-year-old WorldSBK rookie Dominique Aegerter was very pleased with his performance and the work of his team. After having cool conditions at the past winter tests in southern Europe, however, he first had to get used to the Australian summer. But this should not be a major hurdle.

Aegerter was consistently placed in the area of P10 in the two two-hour sessions on Monday before the Yamaha rider set the ninth fastest lap time, just over a second off the day's fastest time. He thus impressed as the second-best rookie in the class.

The test will conclude on Tuesday with two more sessions.

#77 Dominique AEGERTER (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team, Yamaha YZF R1)
P9 - 1´31.728 +1.054

"I am happy with how we started the final preparations before the season kicks off this weekend; we were able to make good use of the two sessions today. Yamaha brought some new parts to try and evaluate, and there was also a lot to test in the electronics area. There are also new tyres, but we have not used them yet. For the first time we had conditions with up to 40 degrees. That was a bit unusual at first. But we were able to adapt to it quickly and I think we are on a good way, because we were always in the area around tenth place. That is also our secret goal, and of course to collect as much valuable data as possible so we are well prepared for the weekend."

"Tomorrow, we have two more sessions of two hours each. The weather situation seems to be very stable. So, we will try to continue working through our to-do list of set-up work, and we also plan a time attack and a long run. Phillip Island is a fantastic track by nature. But with the Superbike it is even more fun to ride here, the speed is much higher. I am very happy to be with this environment here. My crew in GYTR GRT Yamaha Team is doing a great job because we managed to do an incredible job in both sessions. We will continue like this and then relax a little bit for two days before the real action starts on Friday."

Practice Times WorldSBK Test Phillip Island - Day one:
1 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1/ 1´30.674
2 Michael Ruben RINALDI / ITA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´30.773 +0.099
3 Alvaro BAUTISTA / SPA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4R / 1´30.808 +0.134
9 #77 Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1 / 1´31.728 +1.054

Time Schedule for Tuesday February 21st (CET):
23:10 – 01:10 Session 3
03:40 – 05:40 Session 4