First Day of School for Gardner and Aegerter in Phillip Island
Remy Gardner and Dominique Aegerter completed their first-ever WorldSBK Friday at the iconic Phillip Island circuit, showing consistent speed to finish in 11th and 13th, respectively, on the combined timesheets.
The GYTR GRT Yamaha duo enjoyed a decent Free Practice 1 session, focusing on getting the most from their Yamaha R1 machines. In the 45-minute practice, local hero Gardner placed 10th (1’31.655), with his teammate Aegerter just behind (1’31.855).
With temperatures rising in the afternoon’s Free Practice 2, both riders primarily focused on race pace rather than flying laps. After completing two promising long runs, Aegerter managed to improve his FP1 time to finish the session in 6th (1’31.720). On the other side of the garage, Gardner once again ended the session in the top 10 (1’31.836), despite not being able to improve his time from the morning.
The GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team will be back in action on Saturday, firstly with the Free Practice 3 at 10:50 local time, before moving to Tissot Superpole at 13:10 and finally with Race 1 at 16:00.
Remy Gardner: 11th, 1’31.655
“Today, it was more about coming up with the best tyre strategy for the race, and now I think we have a better idea of what will work. Unfortunately, we had some small issues in the afternoon, but we’ll keep working, and we’re already analysing today’s data to improve for tomorrow and have a good race, my first ever in WorldSBK.”
Dominique Aegerter: 13th, 1’31.720
“It was a decent day even though the position doesn’t reflect our true potential. We tried a few options for the race, and we’ll now check the data to have a clear plan for the Tissot Superpole and the races. The team did a great job; I think we’re ready for a flying lap, so let’s focus and keep working on our way to our first WorldSBK race.”
