Aegerter (14th) steps forward, Mulhauser (26th) goes backwards
In the aftermath of the tragedy that hit the racing world - Luis Salóm from Spain, who would celebrate his 25th birthday at the beginning of August, succumbed to his injuries sustained in a high-speed crash in the second free practice of the Catalan Moto2 Grand Prix on Friday - riders were back out again but on a track that was modified in two places. "There are times when we ask ourselves why are we doing this? But it is our passion. It was also Luis' passion and we are thinking about him a lot," explained Thomas Lüthi (Garage Plus Interwetten), who qualified on the front row of the grid, setting the third fastest time of the qualifying practice. The third man of the provisional world championship classification was the best Swiss representative of the day. Dominique Aegerter (carXpert Interwetten) will start from the fifth row (14th position, one second off the pole position), while Robin Mulhauser (carXpert Interwetten) is very disappointed with his 26th place. Frédéric Corminboeuf, the boss of the two Swiss teams, comments on the beginning of this painful weekend: "In these difficult moments for us all, Tom's front row start makes us happy; it is the product of our hard work, the rider's and the team's. Tom is losing his time in only one sector, T4; he needs to find a solution. Dominique struggled from the beginning of the weekend but he bounced back this afternoon, if he can make a further step forward in the race we can expect a large portion of points. Robin's situation is more complicated; we saw some interesting progress at the beginning of the qualifying session, but when others stepped up, he stayed still. I know that the competition is fierce in this category but I expect him to stand out more."
They said...
Dominique Aegerter (carXpert Interwetten 14th) "The position is not great, I am one second off the pole, but my feeling and my speed improved today. You know that the feeling is very important because I cannot have confidence if I don't feel comfortable on the bike. The circuit has been modified, it is very narrow; I still have some things to fix in the warm-up - we are definitely going to modify the gearbox. This new track improved our safety so we do not need to dispute it. It is hard losing a rider. Riding is our life, it is the same for all of us. When I am on track I am 100% concentrated but off track it is hard to find words to describe my sorrow."
Robin Mulhauser (carXpert Interwetten, 26th) "I was looking forward to this Catalan Grand Prix but I have to admit I am completely lost. I cannot get on with this new track configuration, we cannot find a set-up for my bike and in the sector where I was losing 0.4 seconds yesterday, I am now 1,5 seconds off. The whole situation is obviously difficult. This is the first time in my career that I am so close to the loss of a rider in my category. We all know the rules, the risks and I know that life can be short and we have to make the most of it. It is a very strange feeling."
