Dominique Aegerter (8th) attacks, Mulhauser has a better feeling
No one in Moto2 has ever been this fast on this circuit of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia during a Grand Prix weekend: Japanese Takaaki Nakagami set a new lap record of this Spanish track during the first day of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. The Top-16 in the provisional classification, which includes Thomas Lüthi (Garage Plus Interwetten, 5th) and Dominique Aegerter (carXpert Interwetten, 8th) are divided by less than a second, which illustrates how intensive the battle is in this category. While Tom had a successful day and impressed with his pace in the afternoon's second free practice, "Domi" had two crashes, without any consequences. 27th overall today, Robin Mulhauser (carXpert Interwetten) is only two seconds behind the fastest man of the day. A summary of the first sunny day back in Europe with the boss of the Swiss structure, Frédéric Corminboeuf: "Today was strange in terms of the different behaviour of the two tyres that we have at our disposal; in these circumstances it is difficult to set up the bike for the race: to set a lap time, it is ok but we still have a lot of work to do in terms of the race distance. We are in the game with Tom in 5th and Dominique in 8th; we are in a good group. We need to get some sleep and try to find the best solution on Saturday. Tom is half a second off, but his rhythm is not bad compared to some others. Dominique lost the front twice, he did not hurt himself and again he showed us his fighting spirit that he's always had - he went out straight away each time and was immediately as fast as before. Things look positive for the race on Sunday and the objective for him is to have a good qualifying session to start from one of the front rows and stay with the leading group. Robin continued in the same direction as at the beginning of the race in Austin until he had the crash, which was not his fault. In the first two sectors he is only losing 2 tenths and now he needs to find a solution for the other two sectors to have a good race. He really needs it and I am sure that once he gets there, everything will click again."
They said...
Dominique Aegerter (carXpert Interwetten, 8th) "We knew from the start that one set of tyres would work a lot better than the other and it is indeed the case. Those who used the right ones this morning were a second faster but the situation balanced out in the afternoon. Now we have to work on the distance. I had two small crashes, losing the front in corner number 1 and 2, so it wasn't in fast places. I still have to find the limit but overall I am happy today; we spent five days testing here in the winter, we have a good base and it is always good to be in the Top-10 from the first day."
Robin Mulhauser (carXpert Interwetten, 27th) "When I got back to Switzerland from Texas and before going to Mallorca, where Dominique and I did 600km on a bicycle in a week, I went to the hospital for a check-up to make sure that everything was ok with my left hand, which is still swollen. In fact, the biggest concern was my triceps, which had become almost as big as a thigh..! No more concerns now, today was quite interesting on a circuit where I used to struggle a lot. Compared to Tom Lüthi, I am only losing two tenths in the first two sectors; then I lose a lot of time in the fast corners where I find it difficult to keep the right line. We have to work on this."
