The Official Test for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is done and dusted and the second day was when GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team duo Remy Gardner and Dominique Aegerter showed their hand ahead of the season-opening Australian Round. Both put in late laps towards the end of Tuesday’s Free Practice 2 session to finish in the top five, with Aegerter in second and home hero Gardner in fifth and both riders also appeared in the top ten in the combined classification at the end of the day’s running.

Gardner had been in second place for much of the two-hour session before dropping down as riders put in a series of fast laps in the final minutes of FP2. However, the Australian was able to post a 1’31.073s to take fifth place in the session, and ninth in the combined classification, to end winter testing on a high ahead of his home round and WorldSBK debut at the weekend. Gardner completed 115 laps on the second day of testing as he used the test to prepare for the Australian Round, with a lot of his work with the weekend in mind.

Discussing his pace, Gardner said: “It was a good day and a good way to finish the pre-season. We did our first race simulation, although not f but we did plenty of laps without stopping. It was good. Honestly, I was quite happy with the pace. I need to understand how to control the rear tyre a bit to have good pace at the end but I was quite happy. We didn’t get to manage a really fast lap, just with some red flags and bad timing but this was not the goal of the test. I’m pretty confident.”

Aegerter’s lap in the closing stages of Free Practice 2 put him second in the session standings after he posted a 1’30.739s to finish behind only reigning Champion Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) with Aegerter’s lap 0.335s slower than the Spaniard’s. In the combined classification, Aegerter was the second-fastest Yamaha rider, behind Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) in second and ahead of 2021 Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) who was sixth in the combined times.

Reacting to this, Aegerter said: “I’m happy with my fastest lap. With the SC0 tyre you have a lot of grip for a few laps so it’s fantastic to ride the Yamaha R1 around Phillip Island. For me it was good to have a test here where we have our first round. It’s nice to come here with hotter conditions but a little bit windy today. We could work with different items and also, we had different tyres to try. For sure, we need to work a lot and learn a lot to be with the fastest guys especially in the race simulation. Until now, we’ve been missing a little bit too much but I’m still adapting to the new bike, the team and the tyres. When it comes to one fast lap, I can do it.

“I think it’s quite difficult to say because we are trying different setups and then also, I did one race simulation, not completely the 22 laps, but I didn’t know how much I could push from the start. I started carefully but then I could keep the pace, but I couldn’t really improve. Of course, when you see pace like Bautista or Toprak or the fast guys, they are 0.7, 0.8s faster than my times. I think, when we improve my riding and the bike a little bit, we can also improve the race simulation. Then I need to race and see how the speed will be.”

THE GOLDEN ERA CONTINUES: how will Gardner and Aegerter fare in 2023? Find out using the WorldSBK VideoPass!