Amid a platoon of formidable Ducati Panigale V4R bikes, Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) rode with a knife between his teeth on Sunday in Race 2 as he closed the Motul Hungarian Round with his best MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship result in two seasons. The American’s fifth-place effort will put wind in his sails after a tricky pair of rounds at Assen and Portimao and confirms the pace that he’s shown glimpses of in his second season in Kawasaki green.

The #31’s weekend started out from the middle of the pack as his Tissot Superpole session 1’39.419s saw him to the fourth row in P12. In Race 1, he saw much of independent Ducati rider Tommy Bridewell's (Superbikes Advocates) rear wheel, and while he eventually came out on top of the #46 by the end of the race, he finished net negative one position in P13. The Texan found another gear on Sunday, climbing four positions past Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) and Tarran Mackenzie (MGM Optical Express Racing) and moving up after a Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) tech issue and a Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) crash to finish in P8.

BACK ON HIS HORSE: “After Assen, I was not in a great place mentally… It’s nice to come back one weekend later and have a really good Sunday”

Race 2 saw the ‘Lone Star’ soar even higher, as he started from P8, and wasted no time in getting to work on the riders ahead of him. He found a way past ‘Taz’ on Lap 5, and over the next five laps, he reeled in rookie Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing), setting his best lap of the race on Lap 8 of 1’39.572s in the process to breach the top five by the race’s midpoint. Having charged up the grid into the P5, and still touting a head full of steam, Gerloff laid down his strongest run of the contest from Lap 11 to Lap 13, three consecutive laps below the 1’39.8s mark, each of the three faster than any other rider in the field not riding a Ducati Panigale V4R. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) closed on him in the late laps, but the #31 held on to take his best finish since Aragon 2024, a weekend where he took a pair of P5’s and a Race 1 podium.

On his Balaton Park weekend and what changed from Assen, Gerloff said: “It’s a nice way to finish the weekend 100%. I’m about to get on a flight back to Texas, so it’ll be nice to have something to smile about on that 12-hour flight. After Assen, I wasn't in a great place mentally, so after that horrible weekend, it’s nice to come back one weekend later and have a pretty good weekend and a really good Sunday. I was scratching my head in Assen. I had an idea of what needed to be better, but with everything we tried, I was getting the same lap time. Neither the team or I could explain it. Then, we came here. Friday wasn’t bad, Saturday was a bit better, and Sunday was really good; each change we made brought us closer to a better result. That’s racing; sometimes it’s working and everything you do works, and other times it’s the opposite. I’m just glad to be able to put the green machine back towards the front. I’m really happy with how the bike feels; we just need to be more consistent with the setup, and I need to be more consistent  so we can get closer to the front”

WITH MOMENTUM ON THEIR SIDE: “Now we’re back to a top five, if we can go 6^th, 7^th, 5^th, maybe at Most we can go top 4, who knows?”

Even with his struggles at Assen, his results so far this season show a clear upward trajectory for the #31, who, back in 2025, didn’t land a result in the top ten until the first race of the sixth round. In 2026, he kicked in the door of the new campaign with three results in the top ten, including his previous best result this season of P6 in the season opener Down Under. Next up is the Czech Round’s Autodrom Most, one of his stronger tracks, and he will look to keep the ball rolling in Czechia starting on May 17^th.

On his feeling so far in 2026, Gerloff said: ”It was nice to get 6^th at Donington last year, but I was struggling all year to find a good feeling with the bike, then in the offseason, Kawasaki was nice enough to bring in Les, he’s not afraid to make some big changes and try out some interesting things. Immediately at the start of the year, I had a P6 in Australia and a P7 in Portimao, which, for us, was so much better than last year. Now we’re back to a top five, if we can go 6^th, 7^th, 5^th, maybe at Most we can go top 4, who knows?”

Catch the #31 at next time out at Most! Watch Live or OnDemand with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 30% off!