\nAmid 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\u2019s 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\u2019s shown glimpses of in his second season in Kawasaki green.<\/p>\n
\nThe #31\u2019s weekend started out from the middle of the pack as his Tissot Superpole session 1\u201939.419s 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<\/a>\u00a0to finish in P8.<\/p>\n \nBACK ON HIS HORSE: \u201cAfter Assen, I was not in a great place mentally\u2026 It\u2019s nice to come back one weekend later and have a really good Sunday\u201d<\/p>\n \nRace 2 saw the \u2018Lone Star\u2019 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 \u2018Taz\u2019 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\u201939.572s in the process to breach the top five by the race\u2019s 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\u201939.8s 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\u2019s and a Race 1 podium.<\/p>\n \nOn his Balaton Park weekend and what changed from Assen, Gerloff said: \u201cIt\u2019s a nice way to finish the weekend 100%. I\u2019m about to get on a flight back to Texas, so it\u2019ll 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\u2019s 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\u2019t bad, Saturday was a bit better, and Sunday was really good; each change we made brought us closer to a better result. That\u2019s racing; sometimes it\u2019s working and everything you do works, and other times it\u2019s the opposite. I\u2019m just glad to be able to put the green machine back towards the front. I\u2019m really happy with how the bike feels; we just need to be more consistent with the setup, and I need to be more consistent\u00a0 so we can get closer to the front\u201d<\/p>\n \nWITH MOMENTUM ON THEIR SIDE: \u201cNow we\u2019re back to a top five, if we can go 6th, 7th, 5th, maybe at Most we can go top 4, who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n \nEven with his struggles at Assen, his results so far this season show a clear upward trajectory for the #31, who, back in 2025, didn\u2019t 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\u2019s Autodrom Most, one of his stronger tracks, and he will look to keep the ball rolling in Czechia starting on May 17th.<\/p>\n \nOn his feeling so far in 2026, Gerloff said: \u201dIt was nice to get 6th 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\u2019s 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\u2019re back to a top five, if we can go 6th, 7th, 5th, maybe at Most we can go top 4, who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n