Marcel Schrötter is having a promising start to the 2024 Supersport World Championship in Australia: on Sunday he will be scoring his first victory on Phillip Island.
MV Agusta driver Marcel Schrötter looks back on a successful start to the 2024 Supersport World Championship. The 31-year-old German secured a front row starting position in Superpole at Phillip Island (Australia) and finished both races on the podium.
On Saturday, Schrötter was ranked P3 and on Sunday he scratched out victory, finishing just second behind Ducati rider Yari Montella.
“I’m super happy with this start to the championship,” said Schrötter, delighted with the successful start. “The hard work over the winter months paid off. Then we made the long journey here to Australia and achieved two podium places on the first race weekend. We can be a little proud of that.”
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“The race on Sunday showed that we still need a little more,” notes the former Grand Prix driver. “We have to come up with something, especially in the first laps, because Montella got away from us again.”
“Otherwise we coped well with the general situation. By that I mean the long wait. It wasn’t easy to sit around for two hours and wait to see what happened,” he comments on the long wait due to the oil slick in Turn 2.
During the supporting program, a motorcycle spread a lot of oil on the track. The cleanup took longer than expected.
It was then decided to shorten the Supersport World Championship race.
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“To be honest, I was already done with the day still being driven. Then we had to prepare for a sprint race where every lap is driven like a qualifying. At the beginning I wasn’t fast enough, but then I was able to keep up well,” explains Schrötter.
Towards the end of the race, Schrötter got closer and closer to Montella, but was no longer able to attack the Italian.
“Especially in the last laps I was faster than Montella and the drivers behind me. I wouldn’t say that one more lap would have been enough for the win, but I would definitely have been within striking distance. We were able to handle the tires better than others,” says Schrötter happily.
After the first two races, Schrötter is in second place in the drivers’ standings with 36 points behind Montella, who received the maximum number of points of 50 points in Australia thanks to his two race victories.