Interesting first day in Portugal

Bo Bendsneyder and Dominique Aegerter started well at the Grand Prix of Portugal with respectively seventeenth and eighteenth time. On the challenging Portimao circuit, both riders of NTS RW Racing GP were in or close to the top 15 for most of the time.

Aegerter and Bendsneyder started the day in Portimao by exploring the circuit together. In the extra long first free practice, Aegerter had to get used to the NTS and the circuit, where the Moto2 has never raced before. Bendsneyder adapted quickly to the circuit where he last rode in Moto3, six years ago, and ended FP1 in twelfth.
In the second practice, it was soon clear that both the Swiss and the Dutchman had got the hang of it. With his 1.43.662 Aegerter was in the top 10 for a while, but eventually he ended up in 18th place, 0.721 of the fastest time. Bendsneyder also came close to the top 10, but in the end dropped from thirteenth to seventeenth place with his fastest time of 1.43.634, at 0.693.

Bo Bendsneyder: “It’s a really nice track. I used to ride here before, but with the Moto2 machine and new asphalt it feels like a completely new track. All in all, it was a good day: this morning twelfth, this afternoon seventeenth. We weren’t even looking for a very fast time yet today, but my pace is so good that I was able to ride my fastest time a few laps in a row. That is really promising for tomorrow.”

Dominique Aegerter: “It is a very special track. Like a rollercoaster, a lot of fun to ride here. It is quite physically demanding though and it is difficult to setup the bike because it is constantly going up and down and left and right. We have been able to take a big step from FP1 to FP2. We are certainly on the right way and because Bo and I are so close to each other in the standings, we can compare each other’s data well and improve even further.”