Gerloff suffers more disappointment after contact with Rinaldi

Garrett Gerloff looked to be on course for a third consecutive WorldSBK top five finish at Estoril, before the American lost control of his Yamaha R1 and took out Ducati rider Michael Rinaldi. 

Gerloff had finished both race one and the Superpole race in fourth place, a position he was running in once again. 

The GRT rider was just behind Toprak Razgatlioglu who was making an overtake on Rinaldi, but Gerloff made a mistake on entry to turn six and had nowhere to go but hit the Italian which caused both riders to DNF. 

A disappointing end to a Sunday that had started really well for the 25 year-old. 

"Our Sunday started really well. We made some further improvements to the bike overnight and everything felt really good in the warm-up," said Gerloff.  

"I was excited for the Superpole Race, which went smoothly: I had a better start and a better first corner than yesterday and I was able to keep up with the top 3. I felt really confident, but there were a couple of corners in which I was losing a little bit of ground. 

"Still, I was happy to get another fourth place and to gain a lot of useful information for the long race." 

Just a week before the Portugal round, Gerloff was running second in Aragon and challenged Jonathan Rea for the lead during the same race two. 

It was a move that saw the second year WorldSBK rider fall after making contact mid-corner, while Rea was able to remain aboard his Kawasaki. That incident was just a case of out-braking himself. 

This on the other hand was a bizarre moment as Gerloff said the bike ‘kicked him’ when regaining traction and caused him to lose control due to the ‘violent’ nature of it. 

Gerloff added: "In Race 2 I had a great start and I was trying to settle in and keep calm, but I had a really strange moment going into turn 6: I braked a little earlier than I had all day in order to start saving some tyres, but the bike kicked me once the rear wheel sat down. 

"It was so violent that I lost control. I did my best to slow down and go straight, but unfortunately I tagged another rider and we crashed. 

"I am glad that we were both okay, we will now try to put the accident behind us and focus on the next round at Misano, which is a track that I really like."