Phillip Island round ‘a sinking ship, but luckily we didn’t drown’ - Garrett Gerloff

Garrett Gerloff managed to rescue two top ten results in the feature races, but it was not the start he and the Bonovo Action BMW team expected at the WorldSBK season-opener.

Gerloff wasn’t the only BMW rider to struggle as team-mate Scott Redding could only manage a best result of 11th. 

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“It was a sinking ship on Tuesday and Friday, but luckily we didn’t completely drown,” said Gerloff.

“It wasn’t the best weekend, but it could have been a lot worse for sure. Overall, to have two top-ten in the main races is quite a decent way to start the season.

“It’s definitely a better way than we started last year where we were barely inside the top 15. I feel good on the bike.

“The competition is so strong, I can’t believe how fast everybody’s going. That’s definitely not making it easy.

“But we are figuring ourselves out, making progress. I’m looking forward to my home race coming up in a couple of weeks; testing first and then Barcelona, let’s go.”

For Redding, the opening round of the year was one to forget as he was consistently out-performed by Toprak Razgatlioglu, Michael Van Der Mark and Gerloff.

Redding finished both Sunday races outside of the points and alluded to going the ‘wrong way’ with the bike set-up.

Redding said: “It was a difficult weekend. I think we went the wrong way setting up the bike, I couldn’t improve the lap time like the other guys and go fast.

“It was a strange week throughout the test here as well with the weather changing a lot, track grip changing a lot and I think we just got caught in the wrong way to go with the bike.

“We are going to Barcelona. Hopefully we can improve, because the bike is showing potential. We’ll restart at Barcelona.”