At the World Superbike Championship in Aragon Philipp Öttl takes three top 8 results and recommends himself for the 2024 WSBK season, for which he still has no job
Philipp Öttl is still looking for a job for the coming season. The German will lose his place in the GoEleven Ducati team to doping offender Andrea Iannone. Officially, Iannone has not yet been confirmed as a rider, but everyone in the World Superbike Championship paddock agrees that the deal is a done deal.
Öttl has few appealing alternatives at the moment. A door could open at Motocorsa-Ducati should Axel Bassani switch to Kawasaki and Michael Rinaldi find a place at Honda. Öttl’s recent performances undoubtedly recommend him for a third WSBK season.
At the weekend in Aragon, Öttl made it onto the third row of the grid. In Superpole, he was eighth, 1.027 seconds behind. Öttl finished the first race in P6. This was followed on Saturday by P8 in the sprint and P7 in the second main race.
Best weekend of the season: Philipp Öttl collects 21 points
“That was a great weekend here in Aragon,” Öttl said happily. “Eighth place in the Superpole race was very important for the second race. Seventh in the main race was a pretty solid result. I’m happy for the guys, who did a really good job.”
“The feeling was a bit different, probably because the condition of the track changed,” mused the Ducati rider. “In the final laps of the second race I was able to do really good lap times and make up some positions from P11. The bike was working really well. “
“We were able to do more consistent lap times. The 18 lap race was more consistent. Now it’s on to Portimao. It’s a circuit I like a lot. I hope we continue to follow the right path and get more great results,” said Öttl.
“Determined and aggressive” – Philipp Öttl receives praise from team
GoEleven team manager Denis Sacchetti is delighted with the whopping haul at the Aragon weekend: “We haven’t scored so many points at any other event this year. Philipp proves that he has not lost his motivation, just like the team has never lost its confidence. “
“We worked very well together and fought for the win in the Independent classification in every race,” commented Sacchetti, who was really happy with his rider at Aragon.
“I am very happy with the approach to the races. Philipp rode very determined and aggressive here from the first laps. We have to continue like this. We have to consistently finish in the Top 8 and take advantage of the opportunities that come our way,” explained the Italian.
