Friday 16 May was the first time that Gerloff had ridden around the Autodrom Most on his Ninja ZX-10RR. He was presented with a true challenge as the track surface started off damp and a little dirty, making FP1 a particularly difficult session to deal with.

It proved even more complicated than anyone could have expected after there were several big crashes from some top WorldSBK names, which led to four separate red flag stoppages.

FP2, in the afternoon, was again not begun in ideal track conditions. Gerloff started it positively as he made progress towards finding a final race set-up for Saturday’s first race of the Most weekend. Garrett was eventually 16th in the overall Friday timesheets.

Superpole Qualifying on Saturday 17 May determines Gerloff’s final Race One grid position. Sunday, 18 May, will feature a ten-lap Superpole Race and then a final 22-lap Race Two.

Garrett Gerloff stated: “It was a bit of a crazy opening day because of the weather. Those were not the easiest conditions to try stuff in. But, in the end, we did get two fairly dry sessions, which was nice. I was just trying to get used to the bike at this track. We did not make a whole lot of crazy-big changes but I am feeling better, lap-by-lap. At the beginning of the second Free Practice session I saw my name closer to the top and I was thinking, ‘Ok, here we go…” Then I started moving back down the order, but I didn’t feel so bad. Let’s see if we can improve a little bit on Saturday.”