Gerloff claims maiden superpole at Magny-Cours

Garrett Gerloff held on his strong performance through the weekend’s three practice sessions into qualifying, where he claimed his maiden WorldSBK pole position at Magny-Cours.

BMW rider Garrett Gerloff appeared to be riding differently this weekend in France WorldSBK at Magny-Cours following the summer break. The Texan has had a solid weekend so far, placing his BMW at the very top of the field in qualifying.

Gerloff finally secured his first pole position in his fourth season of WorldSBK, but he will be joined on the front row by some formidable rivals as the 2022 Champion Alvaro Bautista was only able to qualify in second place on the grid.

Gerloff and his hometown-hero teammate Loris Baz were the first riders out  as the track immediately exploded with action.

Despite the fact that Gerloff went faster than he had at any other point over the course of the weekend, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) took first place with a time of 1’35.970 seconds, dispatching Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) and Scott Redding (ROKiT BMW Motorrad), both of whom made significant gains.

Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) also surprisingly landed on the front row after the opening stint.

Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), whose first lap was interrupted by yellow flags after Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha) crashed, advanced to P4, while Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon) placed only seventh.

With five minutes remaining, Garrett Gerloff was leading and was three tenths faster than Rea, who had just established a new lap record at Magny-Cours with a time of 1’35.453.

Rea was the only rider within half a second of him, but on one of his flying laps, his teammate and a large number of riders caused traffic dampening his chances of edging the benchmark time.

Gerloff took the pole position for the first time in his career, becoming the first American to do so in WorldSBK since John Hopkins on a Suzuki at Silverstone in 2011.

The Texan is firmly in the hunt for the podium with steady pace throughout the entire weekend. Alvaro Bautista was second as his teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi put another Ducati on the front row after finishing third.

Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea qualified in fourth and fifth place on the grid respectively, will start from the second row.

Loris Baz put his BMW in sixth place on the grid to cap off a strong qualifying run for the Bonovo BMW team. The entire set of factory ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK bikes were outqualified by both satellite BMW bikes.

Italian rider Andrea Locatelli qualified in seventh place and placed his Yamaha on the third row. Alex Lowes and Danilo Petrucci will be starting behind him in the third row.

Scott Redding, who crashed while racing behind Gerloff on the session, will start from tenth.

2023 French WorldSBK Magny-Cours Superpole Results