Dominique Aegerter fought through the pain barrier to a points-scoring finish as race action got underway at the penultimate round of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship at Circuito Estoril, Portugal.

As the challenging weather conditions, both FP3 and the Tissot Superpole sessions were held in wet and damp conditions, with Remy Gardner qualifying 16th on the grid and Aegerter 18th.

An improvement in weather saw Race 1 as only the second dry session of the weekend, meaning an almost-blind approach to set-up and pace.

Returning from injury, Aegerter fought through the pain barrier to fight for a top ten position, showing consistent pace throughout the 21-lap contest to eventually cross the line 14th.

Gardner became caught up in the scrapping pack in the early stages and was involved in an incident on Lap 2, crashing out of contention.

He was taken to the medical centre where it was confirmed he had sustained a fracture to the hamate bone in the left wrist, bringing the Australian rider’s weekend to a premature end. He will now head to Barcelona for further checks on the wrist, but it is expected he will miss the final round in Jerez next week.

Dominique Aegerter – Superpole: P18 / Race 1: P14
“To finish in the points is a positive thing, honestly it was a target, considering we also had a very challenging Free Practice 3 and Superpole with tricky conditions. I was able to show consistent speed in the race and that’s for sure a good sign. I’ll now try to recover as much as I can for tomorrow’s races, with the goal of improving and being strong throughout all the laps.”

Remy Gardner – Superpole: P16 / Race 1: DNF
“That’s a disappointing way to finish our season, unfortunately. We struggled in the Superpole with tricky conditions and our starting grid position surely didn’t help us in Race 1. We were confident in the dry and I thought I could make a good comeback, but after just one lap I got involved in an incident and I crashed. Unfortunately, I have broken my wrist, which brings our weekend to an early end and probably the season with the final round only next week, which isn’t the way I wanted to finish the year.”