Garrett Gerloff and his Kawasaki WorldSBK Team worked well together on the first official day of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship season, with Garrett ninth fastest overall while making set-up progress with his Ninja ZX-10RR machine.
Phillip Island in Australia hosted two free practice sessions that marked the true beginning of the latest championship campaign – the second for the partnership of Gerloff and his Kawasaki WorldSBK Team.
After two days of testing at ‘PI’ earlier in the week, Garrett and his crew felt well-prepared to take on the 4.445km-long circuit in the FP1 and FP2 practice sessions.
Ending up seventh in FP1, then ninth in the final combined times, Gerloff was 0.834 seconds from the fastest rider on Friday, but only 0.338 seconds from the rider in second place.
With day one complete, Gerloff is now ready to take on a third free practice session, the Superpole qualifying session and then a 22-lap Race One – all of which will take place on Saturday 21 February 2026.
Manuel Puccetti
“A really good day. Gerloff has a very fast pace, and this leaves us confident for tomorrow’s race. We just need to work on the final sector where we can still improve. But we have everything we need to be competitive, run a good race and aim for something more than top ten.”
Garrett Gerloff
“I am pretty happy with how things went today, finishing the morning’s FP1 session in the top seven. I think that is my best FP1 performance here. To finish inside the top ten at the end of day one is better than I have done here in most previous years. I still want to be closer to the top five but, in general, I am happy. I am really happy with all the work that the team is doing and the setting changes that we are making. I feel confident for tomorrow and Race One, we just need to put everything together and have a good day.”
