Garrett Gerloff had his first ever on-track experience of the all-new 4.075km long Balaton Park circuit during the first day of WorldSBK track action, held on Friday 25 July. He ended his opening day 14th in the combined times.
Unlike many of his rivals Gerloff did not test at the Balaton Park circuit with a non-WorldSBK spec training bike a few weeks ago, making the opening FP1 session this morning his first real taste of the unique new WorldSBK facility near the vast Lake Balaton in Hungary.
Given his lack of Balaton Park track knowledge before he took to the circuit in FP1, finishing ninth from 23 riders was a strong early start at this unique layout for Garrett, his Ninja ZX-10RR machine and the whole Kawasaki WorldSBK Team.
Gerloff experienced a change in feel in the afternoon Free Practice Two session and ended up 14th in the Friday combined timesheets as a result. Now Gerloff and his team will look at the data from the first day to find a strong set-up to evaluate in the final Free Practice Three session.
Saturday 26 July will host FP3, then the Superpole Qualifying session (which determines the Race One grid) and then a full distance Race One, over 21 laps.
.
“We have finished the first day at a new circuit and I really enjoyed the track. It is different from many others, with a lot of braking and chicanes. I felt good in FP1 this morning. I was pretty happy with my position, which I think was ninth. I was expecting an improvement in the afternoon’s FP2 session, but I struggled so badly in the afternoon. I tried different tyres but nothing felt great, so I hope we can fix something for Saturday. I was expecting to improve some positions in the afternoon but I lost quite a few. Let’s see how we are tomorrow.”
