Dominique Aegerter and Remy Gardner returned to action at the iconic Donington Park, Great Britian, as round five of the FIM Superbike World Championship got underway, prioritising race distance over single-lap performance to sit 11th and 14th on combined times on day one.

The GYTR GRT Yamaha duo enjoyed a decent first free practice, showing good speed in the 45-minute session, producing laps with the same set of tyres throughout. Gardner was sixth quickest with a time of 1’27.318, while Aegerter was 15th on a 1’27.953.

In the afternoon’s Free Practice 2, the story was the same, with Aegerter and Gardner’s respective crews focusing their work on race pace rather than flying laps, with a specific focus on assessing the different option race tyres. After completing consistent long runs, Aegerter was 11th (1’26.845) and Gardner 14th (1’26.938).

Dominique Aegerter: P11 (1’26.845)
“It wasn’t a bad day overall, but we’re still missing something. We were lucky with the weather and we could try all the options we have with the rear tyre and we’re not far from the top. There’s a big group very close and we’re part of it, that’s positive. We’ll work very hard tonight to improve my feeling on the bike, looking for a strong qualifying.”

Remy Gardner: P14 (1’26.938)
“It was great to jump back on my Yamaha R1 machine and we had an interesting day. The morning was overall ok, but in the afternoon we didn’t improve as much as we expected, I’m struggling a bit with grip. I’m confident anyway that we’ll work very hard tonight and come back stronger tomorrow, we’re close to the top group and I think we can have a good Saturday.”