Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) enjoyed his strongest MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship round to date despite a Race 2 technical problem at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. Fourth in the Tissot Superpole Race gave him his best result in his rookie season during the Pirelli Portuguese Round and he looked to build on this in the final battle of the weekend, but the technical problem dropped him out of contention before the halfway stage.

Gardner enjoyed one of his best weekends of his rookie season in Portugal as he showed strong one-lap and race pace throughout. He was ninth in Saturday’s Tissot Superpole session after setting a 1’40.207s although he did have a faster lap time of 1’39.764s deleted due to it being set under yellow flags. For the Race 1 grid, the Australian was promoted to eighth due to a penalty for Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK). In the opening race of the weekend, the #87 gained two places as he finished sixth, just six tenths behind Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in fifth.

Things got better for Gardner in Sunday’s Tissot Superpole Race as he went from ninth – ‘Loka’ started from third this time – to claim a top-four finish, his best in WorldSBK. He gained three places on the opening lap – including as Lowes and teammate Jonathan Rea crashed at Turn 5 in separate incidents on the first lap – and was fifth until Lap 9. Then, he passed Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) to take fourth and finish just three seconds away from a maiden podium. This gave him a good platform for Race 2, but a technical issue forced him to retire when he was running in the top seven.

Discussing his weekend, Gardner said: “It had been really great, up until Race 2. I started ninth in the Superpole Race, and I knew we could have a good race. We had our lap time deleted in Superpole so I knew I could go forward. I had a really good last two laps, fighting it out with Michael and Iker. I managed to get a good fourth and I was quite happy with that. I used that as a springboard into Race 2 and I was into third for a bit, but I was honestly missing a little bit of pace when the tyre was newer. The guys did get away from me a little bit. I started getting back in my rhythm and started closing up on Iker quite a lot. I think I could’ve had a really good pace towards the end of the race but not even halfway through, we had a little bit of a technical problem and I had to retire from the race unfortunately. It’s an unfortunate away to end but a positive weekend overall.”

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