Garrett Gerloff took part in two Free Practice sessions at the Portimao circuit in Portugal as the second round of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship got underway under sunny skies on Friday 27 March.
FP1 was particularly rewarding for Garrett and his Ninja ZX-10RR machine as he finished up seventh overall. This was a particularly encouraging early result as, unlike many of his peers, he had not taken part in a recent dry weather Portimao test session.
After finding some challenges to deal with in the afternoon session, Garrett would end up 12th in the combined FP1 and FP2 rankings, but just over one second from the fastest rider of all, and only half a second from the rider in fourth place.
Knowing where to concentrate their combined efforts for the second day of action, on Saturday 28 March, Garrett and his crew will now take on Free Practice Three, Tissot-Superpole Qualifying, and a 20-lap opening race. On Sunday 29 March the first ten-lap Tissot Superpole Race, and then a final 20-lap Race Two, will complete the on-track action at the second round of the season.
Garrett Gerloff
“I am pretty happy with how FP1 went, considering that we were not able to come here for the test that a lot of other people were at. So I think we started really well and I was happy with that. I was a little bit more disappointed this afternoon, in FP2, as we struggled with a few things, so I had to keep coming into the pit box, and making changes. Overall, my sector times are still decent, so we just didn’t put it all together. Tomorrow we will make a couple of small changes and try to get some clean laps in and be a bit more consistent. I think it could be a good day.”
