Gardner and Aegerter ‘Road Sweeping’ on Day One in Mandalika
GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team riders Remy Gardner and Dominique Aegerter returned to action on March 3rd at the Mandalika International Street Circuit, with both riders showing strong potential to finish sixth and 12th on combined times.
The duo faced a tricky Free Practice 1 session due to the track being dusty, dirty and without much rubber laid down. In the 45-minute session, Gardner placed sixth (1’35.192), with his teammate Aegerter in 14th (1’36.511).
In the afternoon’s Free Practice 2, with the track offering more grip, both riders went faster. Despite primarily focusing on race pace and long-distance runs, Gardner managed to improve and put himself in the top six once again (1’33.374). Aegerter also shaved down his lap time, going 12th fastest (1’33.837) despite not trying for a flying lap.
Remy Gardner: P6 – 1’33.374
“Today wasn’t a bad one. In the morning, the track was still quite dirty, then in the afternoon, the feeling improved a bit. We’ll need to be very careful with the tyre management here, but we have a pretty clear idea of what compound we should use. We’ve also saved a little something for tomorrow when we hope to have a good Superpole session. Ideally, it would be great to start from the front two rows.”
Dominique Aegerter: P12 – 1’33.837
“As usual, here it’s very hot, and in the morning, the track wasn’t very grippy. In the afternoon, we made some small changes, and we’re not too far from the other guys now. In the last part of the second session, we tried something that didn’t work, so I couldn’t improve my time. We’ll try to have a good qualifying session tomorrow – starting from a good position makes a big difference in the race, as we saw in Australia.”
