Unfortunate Race 1 at Most for GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team
Garrett Gerloff scored a tenth-place finish in Race 1 at Autodrom Most, while Kohta Nozane missed out on FIM Superbike World Championship points after a Turn 1 incident.
Both GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team riders returned to action this morning for Free Practice 3, but with tricky wet track conditions, both took the time to run some shakedown laps ahead of the Superpole.
In qualifying, Gerloff managed to produce a good lap time to go sixth fastest on a 1’31.627, with Nozane finding solid pace as well to start from 15th on the grid (1’32.455).
Afterwards, in a complicated Race 1 that saw spots of rain during the 22-lap contest, the American rider enjoyed a strong start but got stuck in the middle of the group, while his Japanese teammate lost positions after contact at Turn 1.
Gerloff then showed good rhythm and fought with the likes of Honda’s Iker Lecuona and BMW’s Loris Baz, eventually crossing the line in 10th. On the other side of the garage, Nozane made a comeback from 23rd at the end of the first lap to finish 18th.
The GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team will be back at Autodrom Most tomorrow in the Superpole Race at 11:00 (CEST) and Race 2 at 14:00.
Garrett Gerloff: P10
“We had a good Tissot Superpole session, starting from the second row was a strong point. In Race 1, I enjoyed a good start, but the first two corners are really tight and tough to manage, so I lost a bit of time there. Overall, the pace was fine, but unfortunately the final position is not where we want to be. We’ll try again tomorrow; I know we can have a good result here.”
Kohta Nozane: P18
“The Tissot Superpole was not that bad, I had a decent feeling and eventually qualified 15th. I was confident to have a decent race, but unfortunately I had some small contact and dropped places. Tomorrow we’ll try to push more and translate our promising pace into results.”
