Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) competed in two free practice sessions at the 4.542km long Assen circuit as the action got underway in the third round of the FIM Superbike World Championship.
Under cool weather and track conditions for the first free practice session Gerloff found a good feeling with his bike, having made a kind of breakthrough in his understanding of his machine at the previous round in Portugal. He was an encouraging tenth after the first practice session.
Gerloff would go a little faster in FP2, which was held in warmer and sunnier conditions than the morning’s FP1 outing, but would end the day 17th overall.
The American rider felt he would be able to make even greater progress in FP2, but despite pushing as hard as he dared he was not able to set a fast enough lap time to keep him inside the front few places.
On Saturday 12 April there will be one more free practice session for Gerloff and his Italian-based team to work on a final pre-race machine set-up before Superpole Qualifying will determined each rider’s final Race One grid spot. Saturday will culminate with the first 21-lap race of the weekend.
A ten-lap Superpole Race and then a full distance Race Two will round out the competitive WorldSBK action on Sunday 13 April.
Garrett Gerloff
“In FP1 I wasn’t feeling so bad and I thought we had a good start to the day. I was trying my best in the second session but we just didn’t make any improvement, which is frustrating. We are trying to find more speed but it is just not coming so easily. We will look again tomorrow and try to find more pace.”
