Garrett Gerloff continues fine WorldSBK form to top damp Friday at Magny-Cours
WorldSBK Magny-Cours - Free Practice Results (1)
Garrett Gerloff has ended the first day of WorldSBK Championship action at Magny-Cours with the fastest time from the two practice sessions, continuing his impressive recent upturn in form on the GRT Yamaha.
The American, competing in WorldSBK as a rookie this year, was making solid progress in or around the upper mid-field ahead of the most recent Catalunya WorldSBK round when he turned in a podium-winning performance on the privateer ‘Junior’ Yamaha R1.
It’s form that shows no sign of abating as he conquered dismal weather conditions during FP2 in France to unseat champion-elect Jonathan Rea from the top of the timesheets with his final effort.
With weather conditions expected to remain bad throughout the weekend, FP2 proved tricky to negotiate at times for some, not least Rea who suffered an off-track moment at Estoril but managed to stay on, scoring the second best time.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi ended his day strongly as the best Ducati rider in third place, while Loris Baz - thought to be in a direct showdown with Gerloff for the factory Pata Yamaha next year following his counterpart’s Catalunya performance - completed his day in fourth.
Alex Lowes was fifth fastest, while Tom Sykes maintained sixth despite a slip under braking for the Adelaide hairpin on the BMW.
Seventh place Scott Redding was another to meet the Tarmac as he fell coming into the downhill Lycee corner, the Briton ending the session seventh best from Leon Haslam, Eugene Laverty and Michael van der Mark.
Elsewhere,Chaz Davies and Toprak Razgatlioglu - currently fighting over third in the overall standings - were 11th and 12th respectively, while Alvaro Bautista had a troubled day in the wet on the Honda, ending up down in 18th, having been only 19th in FP1.
