Garrett Gerloff took his Ninja ZX-10RR to within less than one second of the fastest time on day one of free practice at the Circuito Estoril in Portugal, on Friday 10 October.
In his first experience of the Estoril circuit on his Kawasaki WorldSBK machine, during a dry and sunny FP1 session, Gerloff placed 12th overall – just 1.239 seconds from the fastest early lap time.
After FP2, Gerloff ended his opening day 13th overall in the combined timesheets, yet even closer 0.965 seconds from the quickest rider, Nicolo Bulega. With the pace so fast and the field packed so closely together at this circuit in particular, Garrett was less than four tenths of a second from the third quickest lap time.
On Saturday 11 October Gerloff will ride in a short FP3 session before taking on the challenge of Superpole Qualifying and then the opening 21-lap WorldSBK race of the weekend.
Sunday 12 October will feature the ten-lap ‘sprint’ race and then a second full distance 21-lap Race Two.
Garrett Gerloff
“I feel like I am riding really well and it is just very close in WorldSBK now. I feel like I have been saying the same thing for a couple of weekends, but I am only two tenths of a second from sixth position. It sounds good on paper but I am back in 13th position. If we can make some small improvements I think it can be a big step for tomorrow. The team is working on the bike, trying to find something, so I will come back on Saturday and give it my all.”
