Gerloff off to a Solid Start, Nozane Gaining Experience on Friday at Magny-Cours

03-09-2021

Gerloff off to a Solid Start, Nozane Gaining Experience on Friday at Magny-Cours

With the end of the 2021 FIM Superbike World Championship slowly coming into view, the paddock moved to the spectacular Magny-Cours circuit for the eighth round of the season. GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s Garrett Gerloff was seventh overall at the end of the day, as rookie teammate Kohta Nozane got his first experience of the French track.

For Gerloff, who was in the fight for the podium here last season, Friday began with just a few dry laps at the end of Free Practice 1, with overnight rain soaking the track. He ended the morning session in ninth but made a step forward in the afternoon, and was seventh at the end of the day, less than half a second away from the fastest time.

On the other side of the garage, Nozane had been 19th fastest in FP1, and was one of the few riders to run in the wet conditions and on the dry track by the end of the session. When Magny-Cours was completely dry in FP2, though, the Japanese could only manage 20th, with a crash late in the session hindering his final result.

For Friday’s combined times, click here.

Garrett Gerloff: P7 - 1'37.635

GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team

It was nice to finally get some dry laps at Magny-Cours, as every single lap I ran last year was on rain tyres. When we finally put slicks on at the end of this morning’s session, everything felt pretty good and in the afternoon it was nice to have better weather to run a few solid laps. The bike feels really good, I am just trying to find my rhythm to be a little more consistent. That’s what I am currently struggling the most with, but I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Kohta Nozane: P20 – 1’39.784

GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team

In FP1 the conditions were very difficult, as it was raining at the beginning but dry towards the end. I was one of the first riders to go out on track and it wasn’t an easy decision to take. In FP2 the conditions were fully dry but my pace just wasn’t there. During my final fast lap I crashed and I was angry with myself for the mistake but we will work to be faster and have a strong race tomorrow. In FP3 we will probably focus on long runs instead of on the time attack.