Picking up from where they left off on Friday, the GRT Yamaha riders were able to improve their times in Free Practice 3, as well as their feeling with the Yamaha R1 and the Spanish circuit.
After going fifth in FP3, Gerloff was ninth-fastest in the ultra-tight Tissot Superpole session, and had high expectations for the race, given the strong pace he had shown throughout the first part of the weekend.
Come race time, though, he was not able to capitalise on his potential due to a difficult start. At the end of the third lap, the American was down in 15th and the remainder of his race was devoted to recovering towards the front. His pace was, again, very quick in clean air but for much of the running, he could not exploit it as he was stuck in traffic. Still, he managed to recover to a ninth-place finish and now aims to run a solid Tissot Superpole Race tomorrow, in order to be closer to the front at the beginning of Race 2.
On the other side of the garage, Nozane made impressive progress and ended the day with a very solid performance in Race 1. His improvement was immediately visible in FP3, during which the Japanese rider improved his fastest lap by 1.5 seconds and was 15th.
Nozane qualified in the same position thanks to his 1'37.664, before running a very solid race in which he battled with Michael Ruben Rinaldi. In the latter stages, he lost touch with the factory Ducati rider and finished just outside the top-10, in 11th place. Still, he can be satisfied with the steps forward that he has been making throughout the weekend so far.
For Race 1 results, click here.
