Aegerter 7 tenths off, Mulhauser angry with himself

The first day of free practice for the Moto2 Grand Prix of Argentina, on the circuit of Termas de Río Hondo in the north of the country, was the least busy day: Thomas Lüthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten) was fifth fastest, forgetting about his bad memories from last year, when he was struck by a severe flu. In the afternoon, together with Dominique Aegerter (Technomag Racing Interwetten), Lüthi was in a good and very close group; there were eighteen riders in the same second. And although the overall result in the classification is not that impressive, the boss of the Swiss "dream team", Frédéric Corminboeuf, draws a positive conclusion from the day: "Our two fastest riders are 6 and 7 tenths of a second respectively off the leader, which shows that we keep making a progress. Our technical teams learn and look for improvements all the time. I am sure that we can be in for a great result with Tom and Dominique. In this category everyone gets faster and faster, it is an incredible challenge for us. Unfortunately Robin Mulhauser (Technomag Racing Interwetten) did not have one of his best days and he also had a technical problem."

And they said...

Dominique Aegerter (Technomag Racing Interwetten, 15th): "I'm still suffering from the consequences of my crash last Sunday in Texas. My back, my neck - everything hurts. Things are not as easy as last year for me on this circuit Río Hondo but we are working on it. We are now in a good group, the gaps are very small and every time I go out, I feel a bit better on my Kalex. It is a long process to understand the reactions of a race bike, we are working hard and it will pay off soon."

Robin Mulhauser (Technomag Racing Interwetten, 28th): "I am battling and I do not understand why. I really have to get back "on track" because this is not how I'm supposed to fulfil my contract being 2 seconds off the group scoring points. This afternoon there was something strange on the bike, I'm not sure if it was the engine brake or a problem with the rear tyre but my bike did not behave as usual. We are going to find out and on Saturday I know what I have to do: I have to jump over this barrier that was in my way today."