Aegerter Crowned Double Supersport Champion in Indonesia
Ten Kate Racing’s Dominique Aegerter secured his second FIM Supersport World Championship crown today as he wrestled to fourth in the opening WorldSSP race in Indonesia.
Dominique Aegerter completed his title defence in Indonesia today, storming to a second consecutive FIM Supersport World Championship crown with the Ten Kate Racing team.
After a troublesome Friday, Aegerter began his championship-winning Saturday in fine form, flying to an important front-row start in Saturday morning’s Superpole session, while title-rival Lorenzo Baldassarri finished down in eighth.
With the track temperature quickly approaching the 60c mark, making a strong start to Saturday afternoon’s 19-lap encounter would be crucial, with dust layering the race circuit making overtaking a difficult task.
A quick start for the Champion saw him gain a position into second on the run into turn one but quickly found himself beaten up in the opening laps. Running in seventh, Aegerter looked content with Baldassarri running behind him until a nasty high side at turn one saw the Italian thrown out of contention.
With his main contender out of the race, all Aegerter had to do was finish inside the top 13. However, the Swiss rider continued to push on, first gaining a position on Stefano Manzi who had been given a penalty before forcing his way ahead of Nicolo Bulega and began chasing after Yari Montella ahead.
A tense final corner battle between Montella and the Yamaha rider saw Aegerter cross the line in fourth 0.008 seconds ahead of his rival, giving him the points needed to secure back-to-back titles in the Supersport class.
Jules Cluzel had a promising opening race of the weekend as he brought his GMT94 Yamaha home inside the top ten with team-mate Andy Verdoia in 12th. Leonardo Taccini secured the final point position while Unai Orradre completed the last of the runners in 18th.
After securing 13 race victories and a further two podium finishes so far in 2022, Aegerter extends his lead atop of the standings to an unsurpassable 85 points as he is crowned champion and the third-ever rider to achieve back-to-back titles in the Supersport class.
The 32-year-olds title success also extends Ten Kate Racing’s impressive record further, taking them to a total of 11 riders’ championships in Supersport as well as their 2007 WorldSBK championship win.
The FIM Supersport World Championship resumes on Sunday for the final race of the weekend at 12:00 local time.
Race 1 results
Dominique Aegerter – Ten Kate Racing, Race 1: 4th Championship: 1st
“This year has been amazing; both the team and I have done a fantastic job to win our second World Supersport Championship together with three races remaining. So far, we’ve achieved 15 race wins, and 17 podiums, so it’s been a fantastic season and a dream come true to be champion again.
“It feels great to be in amongst the record books with some big names, but the focus was always the championship and not the statistics. We had a big lead and then it was cut down to just five in Most, but we kept pushing and got the job done in Indonesia. I want to dedicate the championship to my family, friends, the Ten Kate Racing team, and all of our sponsors because it wouldn’t be possible without them all; let’s now enjoy the last race here and the final round in Australia where there’s no pressure!”
