Garrett Gerloff lost his ride in൲ 2024, b🅰ut progressed throughout the year until he was contending for podiums by the end.

The American wound up ninth in the championship and as the third-placed BMW rider, behin♎d the 2024 champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, and Michael van der Mark who finished the yeaඣr fifth in the standings.

Gerloff’s season started disappointingly, with only three top-10s from the opening 15 races, but by round six in Portimao he was able to contend for podium🍎 positions, finishing fourth in Race 1.

It  took unt﷽il the French Round at Magny-Cours for Gerloff to finally stand on the rostrum in 2024 – 💟his first top-three finish since he was third in Race 1 at Barcelona in 2022 – on this occasion overcoming the disappointment of crashing out of the lead in a wet Magny-Cours Race 1 the day before.

“When I first moved to BMW, I knew𓂃 the bike was good, but we w💙ere struggling at the beginning, and at the end of 2023 we got pretty close to a podium a couple of times,” Gerloff told WorldSBK.com.

“I thought for sure we were going to have a podium in 2023 and then that never materi✤alised – that was something super-disappointing.

“At the beginning of this year, we 🔥had an even worse start to the year than we had the year before.

“[So] to finally get to a place where I’m riding like I know I can and tꦿhe bike is working like I know it should, to finally just have it all come together and to get that podium at Magny-Cours – which is where I had a good weekend the year b🀅efore, and I’ve had good memories there in the past – it was so nice.”

Gerloff confessed that he “couldn’t enjoy” the podium in France becaཧuse of the expectations 𒁏he has of himself.

“[It was] just a big relief,” he said. “I almost couldn’t enjoy it because it felt like where I needed to be all along, and ๊so it was just a relief to finally get there again.

“It was so nice for the team, to see them 𒅌smiling and happy, they had never had a podium [in World﷽SBK] before.

“I think it w💦asꦺ almost maybe more monumental for them than it was for me, it just felt like I was getting back to where I knew I could be.”

The time taken to get to the podium in 2024, after ending 2023 strongly, had frustrated Gerloff at the 🌄beginning of the seas𝓡on.

“💎I was disappointed at the beginning 🅠of the year,” he said.

“We ended the year last year so st♉rong and I didn’t expect anythiꦫng less, I expected this year to start as good as [last year] had finished.

“But we just had some iꦗssues that we couldn’t sꦓolve for some reason.

“Once we did that, everything clicked into placeꦉ super-quick and easy, almost. [It was like that] since maybe a little bit before Magny, but Magny-Cours was where it really showed itself.”