Under the eyes of the Kawasaki bosses: Was this the turning point for Domi Aegerter?

Misano is a special event for the Kawasaki works team and Dominique Aegerter in more ways than one. It is the home race for Manuel Puccetti's squad and many visitors traditionally come from Switzerland to the holiday region on the Adriatic. Kawasaki therefore has more guests than at any other race.

This year there was also a noticeable number of Japanese visitors, including the President of Kawasaki Europe and the big boss from Japan. The delegation visited the Bimota factory in Rimini, which belongs to them, and also took a close look at how Puccetti is performing in its first year as the factory team of the Green Team.

To put it nicely, it could have gone better. Superbike rider Garrett Gerloff had no chance in the races after his crash in qualifying and the Supersport department with Dominique Aegerter and Jeremy Alcoba also had little to celebrate.

Domi Aegerter begeisterte die Fans mit einem Burn-out

Foto: gold & goose

In the first race on Saturday, the Swiss rider finished 13th - directly ahead of Alcoba, but 18.1 seconds behind winner Valentin Debise on the fast ZX Moto from China.

On Sunday, Alcoba finished fifth, a much less painful 8.5 seconds behind winner and world championship leader Albert Arenas (AS Yamaha), while Aegerter lost 2.8 seconds more, but only finished 13th. But the truth is that some borderline manoeuvres by his direct rivals in the final phase of the race cost the Rohrbach rider a better result.

Domi Aegerter speaks of progress

"It was very impressive to see how many guests came to Misano and cheered us on - thank you to everyone for coming and supporting us," said Aegerter. "We made some progress over the course of the weekend and got closer to the top riders. I myself have also improved, as I now feel more comfortable with the bike and have been able to adapt my riding style more to the requirements of the Kawasaki. 13th place is not the result we had hoped for. But we stayed close to the top five and Jeremy finished first in our group in fifth place. I was a bit unlucky in the last two laps due to two pretty bad bumps from other riders, which cost me a few positions each time. The most important thing is that we improved, which gives us a boost for the next meeting at Donington Park."

In the overall standings, Alcoba (100 points) and Aegerter (31 points) are in 9th and 17th place respectively.