GERLOFF Kawasaki’ s Garrett Gerloff, who’ d been looking in fine form at the last two rounds, had an equally disappointing weekend, also only scoring six points. In qualifying, he crashed out before recording a lap time and this meant he started both Race One and the Sprint from the back of the grid. This hampered him for the rest of the weekend as he was unable to get into the top ten in any of the races, a real reversal of fortune compared to his positive results at Balaton Park, Most and Aragon. It undid a lot of the good work he’ d put in over those weekends and wouldn’ t have been the way he, or the team, would’ ve wanted to celebrate him renewing his contract with Puccetti for 2027. Incidentally, it has been reported that Puccetti are in discussions with Kawasaki Japan to become a two-rider outfit in 2027. Rounding out the mishaps in qualifying, MGM
Optical Ducati’ s Taz Mackenzie took out Ryan Vickers, who was subbing for injured Jake Dixon at Honda HRC, a mistake that cost Mackenzie a long lap penalty to be served during Race One.
ALEX LOWES Having better fortune in qualifying was Alex Lowes who laid down the third fastest time on the Bimota. This was the first time a bike other than a Ducati had qualified on the front row of the grid this season, emphasising how dominant the V4R is even with the fuel flow restrictions placed on the bike by the FIM regulations. Ahead of Misano, the Bimota factory confirmed that Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani would be their riders again in 2027 and, with the Bimota bosses present at the track, both riders were looking to put in a good showing. On a weekend where Bassani looked to be the stronger of the Bimota riders, it was still Lowes
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