GRT Yamaha Riders Show Strong Pace as Caricasulo Scores Another Top 10 Finish

29-08-2020

GRT Yamaha Riders Show Strong Pace as Caricasulo Scores Another Top 10 Finish

GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team’s 2020 rookies demonstrated their continuous improvement during the on-track FIM Superbike World Championship action at Aragón. With cooler track temperatures, both Federico Caricasulo and Garrett Gerloff made progress towards the front, with the team confident of making another step forwards in Sunday’s two races.

In the first practice session of the day, Caricasulo was able to finally find a set-up he was comfortable with and recorded the 10th fastest lap, less than 0.8s off the leader, whereas Gerloff was 15th. The two rookies than swapped places in the Tissot Superpole, with the American going 10th quickest, while the Italian was 16th after a strategic error.

It was in the race though, that both GRT Yamaha riders showed their true potential. Gerloff was on his way to a solid top 10 finish, but he fell at Turn 5 and dropped out of contention, while fighting over eighth. Caricasulo set a strong pace for the 18-lap opener and climbed up to ninth at the chequered flag.

Thanks to today’s performance, Caricasulo climbed to 15th in the world championship standings, with 19 points, whereas Gerloff sits in 13th, maintaining his 22 points. Sunday’s Warm Up will kick off the action again at 09:00 (GMT+2), before the Tissot Superpole Race at 11:00 and Race 2, at 14:00.

Elsewhere, Ten Kate Yamaha WorldSBK Supported Team’s Loris Baz made further improvements on Saturday morning and enjoyed his best Superpole performance of the season, qualifying second on the grid. The Frenchman rounded Turn 1 in the lead, but was unable to hold and eventually crossed the line in seventh, just behind the Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team riders.

For full Race 1 results, click here.

Federico Caricasulo: P9

GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team

Saturday was quite positive overall. Thanks to all the work we did yesterday after a difficult FP2, we managed to greatly improve the bike. Unfortunately, my qualifying was not good due to a strategy error and we started from the back, but Race 1 was strong. We managed to keep a good pace and were consistently faster than in practice. We will keep this as a base to improve upon tomorrow.

Garrett Gerloff: DNF

GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team

We had an up-and-down day on Saturday. In the morning, we made a lot of improvement on the bike between FP3 and qualifying, and I was able to be as close as I have been to the pole position time. It was nice to be in between the two Pata Yamaha boys in the Superpole. During the race, I had a decent start and the bike was working really well. I was among the second group of riders, from fifth to 10th place. I was able to climb up to eighth and felt like I was catching Toprak and Loris. As I was closing, Bautista passed me, and when I was pushing hard to follow him, I had a strange crash. I say strange because the data does not show that I did anything different from the previous lap, but there was a strong wind today, so that might have played a part in it. I still think it was a positive day, and I am looking forward to tomorrow. I just want everything to come together, to finish where I think I can. We are really close to achieving that.