Garrett Gerloff looked to be on course for a third consecutive WorldSBK t𝓡op five finish at Estoril, before the American lost control of his Yamaha R1 and took🃏 out Ducati rider Michael Rinaldi. 

Gerloff had finished both race one and the Superpole race in fourth plac💎e, a position he was runni👍ng in once again. 

The GRT rider was just behind💯 Toprak Razgatlioglu who was making an overtake on Rinaldi, but Gerloff made a mistake on entry to turn six and had nowhere to go but hit the Italian which caused both riders to DNF. 

A disappointing end to a Sunday that had started really well for🍸 the 25 year-old. 

"Our Sunday started really well. We made some fur🌃ther improvements to the bike overnight and everything felt really good in the wꦓarm-up," said Gerloff.  

"I was excited for the Superpole Race, which went smoothly: I had a better꧃ start and a better first corner than yesterday and I was able to keep up with the top 3. I felt really confident, but there were a couple of corners in which I was losing a little bit of ground. 

"Still, I was happy to get another fourth place and to gain a lot of useful infor💦mation fo🎀r the long race." 

Just ⛄a we🍎ek before the Portugal round, Gerloff was running second in Aragon and challenged Jonathan Rea for the lead during the same race two. 

It was a move that saw theꦿ second year WorldSBK rider fall after making contact mid-corner, while Rea was able to remain aboard his Kawasaki. That incident was just a case of out-braking himself.&nbs𒁃p;

This on the other hand was a bizarre moment as Gerloff said the bike ‘kicked him’ when regaining traction and caused him to los🐎e control due to the ‘violent’ nature of itꦇ. 

Gerloff added: "In Race 2 I had a great start and I was trying to settle in a꧃nd keep calm, but I had a really strange moment going into turn 6: I braked a little earlier than I had all day in order to start saving some tyres, but the bike kicked me once the rear wheel sat down. 

"ﷺIt was so violent that I lost control. I did my best to slow down and go straight, but unfortunately I tagged another rider and we crashed. 

"I am🔯 glad that we were both okay, we will now try to put the accident behind us and focus on the next round at🌊 Misano, which is a track that I really like."