Aegerter (3rd) on form, Mulhauser closes the gap
A new country and a new circuit to explore: this weekend, the world motorcycle championship makes a stop in northern Argentina, in a thermal city Termas de Río Hondo. This region that is about to experience hosting this event could be invaded by almost 100 000 spectators in the next hours. In these special circumstances, Dominique Aegerter has a winning spirit: following his first podium of the season two weeks ago in Texas, the Team Technomag-carXpert rider was classified third fasters overall today on the first day of free practice, despite a small crash (without any consequences). Thirty-second overall Robin Mulhauser continues his apprenticeship and the gap between him and the leaders (2,481 seconds) has never been so small. That is a proof of his progress.
Dominique Aegerter (3rd): "We managed to organise our day very well. This morning we worked a lot with only one tyre; I wasn't really in the front (15th), but we knew exactly what we were doing. This afternoon, I was able to increase my pace without any difficulties and I found consistency. At one point during the session we decided to make a small change to our settings to see if it gives us something, but it was a wrong decision, I even lost the front and crashed, without damaging the bike or hurting myself. I was also able to get out on track very quickly afterwards. The circuit? It is great, with every possible difficulty: fast corners, hard braking points, angle braking, blind rise; I'm enjoying it. I think that many riders will be able to pull a fast lap on Saturday; personally, my objective remains the same: one of the first two rows of the starting grid."
Robin Mulhauser (32nd): "I am enjoying this circuit a lot, it is a lot easier compared to Texas that I experienced two weeks ago. What is interesting is that the gap between me and other riders has significantly decreased. I can even say that this was my best first day of a race weekend since the beginning of the season. But, that is not to say that everything is easy: on this new asphalt, tyres get worn out very quickly, which is worrying. That reminds me of what happened in Imola when I was riding in the European Superstock Championship when the Italian circuit got new asphalt. But well, we are all in the same boat and we will carry on working."
