WorldSBK rider praises non-Ducati rival: “It’s super impressive what he’s doing”
Garrett Gerloff has praised one of his non-Ducati rivals in WorldSBK despite a crash at Magny-Cours.
Kawasaki’s Garrett Gerloff has heaped praise on one of his WorldSBK rivals after the French WorldSBK, despite a crash for the rider in question.
WorldSBK has been dominated by Ducati this season. They’ve won every race, locked out the majority of podiums and each one since Race 2 at Balaton Park, and occupy the first three positions in the championship, as well as five of top six positions.
The only rider to prevent an all-Ducati top-five in the championship at the moment is Alex Lowes, who holds fourth at present behind Nicolo Bulega, Iker Lecuona, and Yari Montella, but ahead of Sam Lowes and Lorenzo Baldassarri.
Lowes has said consistently this year that Ducati deserve praise for the work they’ve done in developing their new Panigale V4 R that has proven impossible to beat in its first 27 races.
After it locked out the top-six in Race 2 at Magny-Cours, Lowes repeated his praise for Ducati on social media.
“The guys at Ducati have changed the game this year, fair play to them,” Lowes wrote in an Instagram post.
“Let's keep trying to get a bit closer, we know what we’re capable of.”
Race 2 was one that Lowes crashed in, dropping out of fifth. He was the only non-Ducati rider to be in the fight with the satellite bikes behind the podium positions, and Garrett Gerloff was keen to praise the Bimota rider for the level he’s shown this season.
“A lot of Ducatis out there, but I feel really good on my Kawasaki and shoutout to Alex Lowes,” said Gerloff, speaking to WorldSBK.com after Race 2.
“I feel bad that he lost the front, but he’s been just so consistent this year, just always in the top-five and it’s super-impressive what he’s doing with the bike.”
Lowes’ crash meant it was Gerloff who ended the race as the best non-Ducati in seventh, 1.5 seconds behind sixth-placed Alvaro Bautista and 23 seconds off the win.
Despite the margins ahead of him, Gerloff was happy enough with his performance, especially having struggled earlier in the weekend for long run pace.
“It was a tough weekend because I felt like we definitely had one-lap pace,” he said.
“But I was really struggling just with race pace. Normally I’m the opposite: normally I’m good for the long distance but not for the one-lap, so hopefully we’ve found something in the setting that we can use for qualifying and then change it for the race, something like that.
“But finally got it figured out for the last race and I was happy about that.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
