Gerloff, Laverty out of rest of Phillip Island WorldSBK

Garrett Gerloff and Eugene Laverty will both miss the remainder of the 2020 World Superbike championship opener at Phillip Island after suffering concussion in separate crashes during warm up.

The GRT Yamaha rider finished in 14^th place on his WorldSBK debut yesterday in Race 1 at the Australian circuit, two places and just under six seconds behind team-mate and fellow rookie Federico Caricasulo, and had been looking to build on that in Sunday’s Sprint Race and Race 2.

But following a heavy fall during the 15-minute warm up session, the American rider has been taken to the medical centre for a check-up where he has been diagnosed with concussion which has instantly ruled him out of action for the rest of the weekend. Gerloff has also been taken to hospital for further assessment with further updates set to follow from World Superbike officials.

Moments before Gerloff’s off, Laverty suffered a similar off with his BMW as he crashed out on his first flying lap in warm up. The factory BMW rider has also been ruled out due to suffering concussion.

Speaking after Race 1, Gerloff was content with his WorldSBK debut but conceded he used too much of his rear tyre life in the early stages of the race at the high attrition Phillip Island track.

“I feel like we have a lot of positives to take from the first race. We finished it and gathered useful information,” Gerloff said. “I did not have the best start, but once I got to Turn 1 I was able to make quite a few moves and found myself in seventh place, which I was very happy about.

“By the time I got that position, there was already a little bit of gap with the front guys. I was trying to close the gap to the top six but doing this used too much my tyres.

“I went too fast in the beginning and probably would have been better to go slower and have more tire at the end, so I could have been more consistent and finished a lot higher than I did.”