Aegerter 7th after day one, Zaidi discovers the Swiss team
Extreme heat and high degree of humidity: welcome to Sepang, a Malaysian circuit located near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, thirty kilometres from the capital. The first day of free practice for the Malaysian Moto2 World Championship Grand Prix on Sunday was dominated by Spaniard Esteve Rabat, who was faster than the rest of the field by more than 7 tenths of a second. Seventh in the classification, 1,204 seconds slower, Dominique Aegerter is still looking for the best technical solution of his bike. This weekend the Technomag-carXpert Team is running with a new rider: two weeks after the debut in Aragon of Robin Mulhauser from Fribourg, it is Malaysian Zaqhwan Zaidi, only 18 years old, who is riding the Suter MMX2 in place of Randy Krummenacher, who is still in the process of recovery in Switzerland.
Dominique Aegerter (7th): "I still have some job to do to find the best set-up for my bike. At the end of the second session of the day, I played a small game with tyres and I managed to win a few tenths of a second, however, the gap of more than one second from the top is very significant. On Saturday before qualifying, we have to work in the direction of the entire distance of the race in order to be sure which set of tyres suit me well and will last the entire distance. Of course the gaps are important because Rabat stole the day, but we must do more."
Fred Corminboeuf (team manager): "We are all thinking a lot about Randy, who is resting in Switzerland. When we learnt that he would not be fit to ride the three overseas rounds, we had to find an emergency solution. I immediately got in touch with the director of the development of young riders of the Malaysian Motorcycle Federation and it was him who suggested Zaidi. He is a young boy, very polite and calm, and we can only be satisfied with his first day (27th position). Next week in Australia, we are going to have the national supersport 600 champion, Daniel Falzon, while a decision is still to be made regarding the Japanese GP taking place in two weeks."
