Superb Recovery for Gardner in Mandalika Race 2, Aegerter Scores Points
GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s Remy Gardner finished in an astonishing seventh place from a start position at the back of the grid in Race 2 in Mandalika, while Dominique Aegerter added more points to his tally with a 12th-place finish.
Gardner was declared fit to race on Sunday morning after gastroenteritis ruled him out of Saturday’s action, and he returned to action in the Warm Up session. The #87 was clearly not feeling 100%, but he showed a lot of grit to set the sixth fastest time. On the other side of the box, Aegerter was 11th (1’33.740).
Unfortunately, due to missing Saturday’s track action, Gardner was forced to start the race from last place on the grid, but the Aussie was prepared to battle. With both riders enjoying a decent getaway, Aegerter and Gardner were sitting in ninth and 14th before a red flag stopped the Superpole race.
The GYTR GRT Yamaha duo had to restart from 12th and 22nd for an eight-lap race, getting stuck in and ready to fight for better positions despite the ‘sprint’ nature of the race. Aegerter finished in 10th but was later demoted one place to 11th after a penalty for ‘irresponsible riding’. Gardner recovered eight positions to cross the line in 14th.
In the final race of the weekend, Gardner showed fantastic race pace to put himself in contention for the top five in the latter stage of the race, which also had a red-flag stoppage. At the finish line, he brought home an extremely impressive seventh-place finish, despite being far from optimal physical condition. On the other side of the garage, Aegerter struggled a bit more with the tyres after the restart, but he scored points once again, crossing the line in 12th.
Remy Gardner – Superpole Race: P14 / Race 2: P7
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could race today, but we made it! We tried our best in the Tissot Superpole Race, managing to recover eight positions. Afterwards, in Race 2, we also showed great speed, starting once again from last. We must take the positives and look forward to the next rounds; we saw we have the speed, we’ll keep working. Let’s focus on some rest now, use the time to recover fully, and then we’ll think about what’s next for us.”
Dominique Aegerter – Superpole Race: P11 / Race 2: P12
“In the Tissot Superpole Race, we wanted to make progress to have a better grid starting position for Race 2. Unfortunately, the red flag didn’t help us at all. So, we had to start again from P12 in the last feature race, but unluckily I felt a bit worse than yesterday, and we struggled a bit more with the tyres. Once again, another red flag wasn’t exactly the best. Anyway, let’s move on; we take the good things from the last two rounds. We proved to be fast, and now we’ll enjoy some rest before coming back in action to be ready for the next rounds.”
