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GRT Yamaha Ends Difficult Weekend with a Solid Sunday at Magny-Cours

GRT Yamaha Ends Difficult Weekend with a Solid Sunday at Magny-Cours

Two more races were on the menu on Sunday for the FIM Superbike World Championship round at the Magny-Cours circuit. The sun kept shining and the teams, with GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s Garrett Gerloff climbing to a ninth-place result in Race 2, while Kohta Nozane was back in the points.

For Gerloff, the work done in the first two days paid off and in Race 2 the American managed his best performance of the weekend. Similarly to yesterday, his day began with a very promising fifth place in the Warm Up session (1'36.969), but again the Tissot Superpole Race did not go according to plan: starting from 12th on the grid, he got mixed up in the battle of the midfield and could only finish 13th. 

The Texan did not lose his cool, though, and after a solid first part of Race 2 he found himself chasing a big group of riders battling over fourth. He took the chequered flag in ninth, but was seven seconds closer to the race-winner compared to Saturday’s race. 

Gerloff was not the only one to show steady improvement today, as his rookie teammate Nozane also enjoyed a much better day at the French venue. He continued getting closer to the front in the Warm Up, in which he was 17th (1'38.855), and in the short Superpole Race he recovered two positions to finish 16th. 

Following the same trend as his teammate, his best performance came in the long race of the afternoon, in which the Japanese was able to keep a much stronger pace and get involved in the battle for the points-paying positions. 14th at the finish line, he also closed the gap from the leader by 15 seconds in comparison to yesterday. Overall, it was not an ideal weekend but one that Nozane ended on a positive note.

Garrett Gerloff - SPRC: P13 / R2: P9

GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team

The Superpole Race was just too short for me to come through the field and unfortunately I couldn’t improve my starting position for the main event. In the afternoon’s long race though, we had a good setup and I was able to move forward a little bit, which was good. A big thank you to the team for all their hard work, I am looking forward to going to Barcelona.

GG31
Kohta Nozane – SPRC: P16 / R2: P14

In the Superpole Race I improved a little bit and my pace was better but in the last three laps it dropped significantly while I was having a great battle with Ponsson, which I at least won. Race 2 was better though, I was much faster but I just could not catch the group of riders in front of me. This track is great but overtaking is very difficult, and the heat we had made it even harder. I am improving under braking too, though, and I will take today as a lesson to continue making progress. The next race will be in Catalunya: it’s been a long time since our test there, but I liked the track and I can’t wait.

KN03