GRT Yamaha Aiming for Step Forward at Aragón After Friday Running

28-08-2020

GRT Yamaha Aiming for Step Forward at Aragón After Friday Running

After two weekends off, the FIM Superbike World Championship circus got back to action in the first of three days at the fast and flowing Aragón circuit, which will host two consecutive rounds. The GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team riders used Friday to search for the perfect set-up for this weekend.

Garrett Gerloff and Federico Caricasulo, who weren’t part of the recent test here, both had to deal with another day of high temperatures, with the track reaching 47°C. The team worked hard to provide the two rookies with the best possible set-up, with varying results.

American rider Gerloff was 10th in the morning and 13th in the afternoon to place 12th on combined times and just 0.861s adrift, despite his lack of experience at the Spanish venue. Italian Caricasulo was 14th overall, having recorded his fastest time in the cooler FP1 session.

Track temperatures are expected to be much lower on Saturday, with the GRT Yamaha riders taking to the 5.078 km circuit at 09:00 (GMT+2) for FP3, followed by Superpole at 11:00 and the all-important opening race at 14:00.

Elsewhere, Ten Kate Yamaha WorldSBK Supported Team’s Loris Baz was the fastest Yamaha R1 rider on Friday, lapping a 1’50.979 in the morning, which was good enough for sixth overall and within half-a-second of the pace-setter.

Garrett Gerloff: P12 – 1’51.404

GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team

It’s nice to be back at Aragón. We tested here last November, but the conditions weren’t ideal, as it was very cold, and to come back with the track temperature almost reaching 50°C was definitely different. It was still nice to be able to already know all the right lines to take at this track. Overall, today was good though. We started with a decent setup and we are just finetuning things now. It feels good to be only 0.8s off first place, even though my position is a bit lower than I would like. I’m looking forward to Saturday and some lower temperatures, and I hope to find some advantage thanks to that. The GRT Yamaha team is working very well, and the bike feels great, so we’ll keep working to improve for the races.

Federico Caricasulo: P14 – 1’51.987

GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team

Today was not exactly a good day. We kept making changes to the setup but always ended up going back in the previous direction, and we struggled more and more with the temperature rising throughout the day. For Saturday, we aim to be more competitive by fixing all of the problems with our race pace that we noticed with today’s heat, as well as to have a good qualifying, which is always crucial.