Gerloff “embarrassed” by Baz collision, “not the first time in this position"

The incident occurred at the beginning of FP2 when Gerloff suffered a huge snap under braking, before losing control on hitting the inside of Baz at turn 18.

The American had to then wait until 17 minutes remaining before returning to action, while Baz was able to resume a few minutes earlier.

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Speaking about the incident, Gerloff told WorldSBK.com: "I’m sorry to Loris and the whole team. I’m definitely embarrassed to have that happen but I’m happy everybody was okay for the most part. 

"Loris’ wrist is hurting a little bit. It was just an unfortunate thing. I hate being in this position but it’s not my first time. 

"I’m happy to be in the top three for the day. I did use a SCQ tyre at the end which obviously helps quite a bit. I feel like we’re still missing a little bit as far as race pace goes with the race tyres. 

"We have some work to do but I’m happy to have a good team around me and they’re going to work as hard as they can to get the bike better for tomorrow."

Despite having his accident, and three red flags stopping proceedings, Gerloff managed to show impressive pace late on in order to finish as the highest BMW rider.

"My programme was affected by some other things. The red flags are an interesting thing that we all have to think about," added Gerloff. 

"It’s something to think about in Superpole and also for the races, to have backup tyres. 

"Hopefully no one goes down and there’s no red flags at all. It’s something the team and I are thinking about."

The red flags were as a result of three riders crashing at the final corner which resulted in gravel rolling onto the track. The three riders that crashed were Gabriele Ruiu, Jonathan Rea and Tito Rabat.