GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s Dominique Aegerter secured a solid eighth-place finish with a fantastic push at the end of race one in Indonesia, while Remy Gardner was unfortunately sidelined for the day due to acute gastroenteritis. The Aussie was well-taken care of by the medical staff, and a further evaluation of his condition will be done on Sunday morning.

The Swiss rider kicked off the day with the last session of Free Practice, where he showed good potential ahead of the Tissot Superpole. At the end of the session, Aegerter was fifth fastest with a time of 1’33.419.

In the afternoon, the #77 was ready to attack the qualifying session, looking for a good start position in what was sure to be an intense race. Unfortunately, despite showing promising pace, Domi couldn’t manage more than 12th (1’33.035), which meant a fourth-row start.

The Mandalika grid presented Aegerter with a prestigious milestone; his 300th career start, which was marked by the team with a special pit board. When it was time to race, the GYTR GRT Yamaha rider enjoyed a decent getaway at the lights but was forced to go wide due to a crash just in front of him.

Aegerter rejoined in 18th, but he wasn’t prepared to settle for that. Instead, Domi showed incredible speed and made his way through the field, eventually getting into contention for the top six in the latter stages of the race. Finally, on the last lap, he pulled off a great double move to overtake the Kawasaki’s of Rea and Lowes and secure an impressive eighth place.

Dominique Aegerter – SP: P12 / Gara 1: P8
“I was unfortunately forced to go wide at the start as another rider crashed in front of me. Anyway, I tried my best to recover, and the rhythm was good; I was satisfied with the race pace. Like I said, unluckily, I lost a lot of time at the beginning, but we’ll take the positives and look forward to the next races. It would be great to have a strong Superpole race to have a better starting position in race two; let’s see if we can do it. I’d like to thank the team for the job they’ve done and the Indonesian fans for the massive support they gave me.”