A fourth place for Garrett Gerloff in Race 2 at the WorldSBK Italian Round last weeke▨nd was the resu🦩lt of strong late race pace.

The Am𒁃erican rider started ninth, but it wasn’t until lap 12 that broke in🐽to the top five.

“The field is so deep right now and everybody is going so fast,” Gerloff explꦍained when speaking to WorldSBK.com. “The beginning of these races are damn near i൩mpossible to go forwards, it feels like, unless you have some kind of big advantage.

“I started ninth after the Superpole Race, which was good, but the first [part of] the race is just fighting to stay i🐬n that train with everybody. But once the tyres dropped I started to feel better and better.

“The bike today was feeling really good, so I was able to make some passes and gain mܫore confidence as the laps went on.”

Ultimately, Gerloff’s pace led him to a battle with Alex Lo🤪wes, who♔ eventually beat for fourth place but not before he lost his rear brake.

“Finally, I caught Alex 🦩[Lowes], and as soon as I caught him, my rear brake lever came off, so that was not making things super-easy; it was not easy to ride without it because with the track temperature so high I just kept losing the front everywhere without the rear brake.

“It wasn’t the easiest race for me, but just happy that I ꦺw💜as able to adapt a bit.”

Gerloff’s position meant he was the manufacturers’ points sco▨rer for BMW as the German brand’s t✃op-placed rider.

That is a position most often held this year by Toprak Razgatlioglu, ❀the current championship leader, but with the Turkish rider absent through injury at Cremona it fell to the likes of Gerloff to aid in BMW’s bid to beat Ducati to this year’s Manufacturers’ World Championship.

“This is one of [Ducati’s] home rounds,” Gerloffﷺ said, “so they were going to be strong here, they’re always strong.

“I was looking at that [Manufacturers’] Championship a bit. I feel like I let them [B𒀰MW] down a bit, because I know we could’ve done ꩲa bit more, maybe.

“Just props to Toprak [Razgatlioglu], what he’s done this year is so impre🅠ssive. We’re all trying our best to fill the void, but aജt least they didn’t lose as many points as they could have. I just want to be closer to the front, to the top three.”