There’s a green spot in Ducati’s red dominance so far this season. In fact, it was Garrett Gerloff who topped the timesheets on Friday at the World Superbike round in Most, finishing ahead of, in order, the Panigale V4 Rs of Nicolò Bulega, Sam Lowes, and Iker Lecuona with his Kawasaki in FP2. An unexpected result even for the rider from Manuel Puccetti’s team, who had started the round with a crash in the morning.
“I felt like I’d put in a good lap, and when I crossed the finish line and saw a 1’30”, I thought, ‘I hope I’m in the top five,’ because I didn’t remember exactly what the fastest time was. On the next lap, I went past the straight and saw on the board that I was in first place. Once I got back in the pits, I made sure they were putting on a race tyre and not the SC0, and they confirmed that the tyre was the race one,” the American said at the end of the day, commenting on his performance in the afternoon session:“Did I find the limit with this morning’s crash? Maybe so, at least in Turn 1. Ididn’t feel particularly comfortable this morning, but my team made some changes that allowed me to feel much more at ease in FP2, and the track improved as well: I had more confidence and more grip, and this combination of factors helped me a lot.”
Calm and happy at the end of Friday, the 30-year-old didn’t start the weekend quite so relaxed.
“I wasn’t that relaxed this morning, that’s for sure. You journalists only see me when things are going well,” Gerloff pointed out with a smile. “Anyway, I feel good, and after Balaton, it seems like we’ve managed to find something in the setup that’s helping me feel comfortable. This morning I didn’t do anything special: I was ninth and 0.8 seconds slower. So, I wasn’t right up front right away. But I’m happy to finish the day in first place. I didn’t expect that at all.”
Speaking about the strengths and weaknesses of his Ninja, Garrett said: “Braking, for me, is undoubtedly the Kawasaki’s strong point. I feel like I can apply a lot of pressure to the brakes and I’m able to stop the bike well most of the time. Sometimes it doesn’t work, sometimes I run wide, and sometimes I crash, but overall I think it’s better than all the other bikes when I’m able to brake well. Sometimes I feel a bit limited in lap time because not all tracks have many hard braking points. On circuits like this one, where there are just a couple of major braking points, I didn’t expect to be as competitive as I was at Balaton. It seems I might be a little more competitive, but I don’t want to overthink it. We need to assess the situation and figure out where we stand.”
Showing improvement in recent rounds, the Kawasaki Racing Team rider explained what allowed him to take first place in Free Practice 2 at Most, after achieving his best result of the season so far at Balaton.
“I think it’s a combination of factors: I believe the Kawasaki performs well here in certain sections. I struggle a lot in the third sector, which could be an area where I might have trouble in the race, but I think this is generally a track that suits the bike, and I’m comfortable with the changes we’ve made to the setup. If I look at Balaton, though, I finished over 20 seconds behind Nicolò, so we have to take it one step at a time,” he noted.
When asked about the ups and downs of his career, the Texan added: “I think having the right people on the team is really important, and I’ve gotten a lot of help from Les Pearson, my chief mechanic. He knows me and understands me, and it seems like together we can find a good setup on any bike. I think the atmosphere in the team has improved a lot compared to last year. So, it’s nice to see how changing one person has changed the atmosphere in the team: everything seems to be going better and feeling more relaxed. Plus, he does a fantastic job with the setup and managing everything. The bike is certainly important too, but people can be much more helpful in a tight situation.”
What does Gerloff want for the future? “I’d like to stay in the World Superbike Championship,” he replied. “I’m pushing hard to make it happen and I hope to have the opportunity to stay. But I want to get good results. I don’t want to be here just to race; I’d like to at least fight for the podium.”