Stefano Manzi and Remy Gardner returned to action today at the Cremona Circuit in Italy, as the tenth round of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship got underway with Friday’s free practice sessions. The GYTR GRT Yamaha riders ended the opening day 15th and 16th respectively on the combined timesheets.
Home hero Stefano Manzi arrived at his home round with plenty of confidence, aiming to build a strong weekend in front of his home crowd. The Italian began his Friday programme with Free Practice 1, using the opening 45-minute session to evaluate different tyre options ahead of the weekend. He completed the session in 15th place with a 1’29.468.
Manzi continued his work in Free Practice 2, focusing primarily on tyre performance over race distance. The #62 rider improved his lap time to a 1’29.275, finishing the session 13th and ending the day 15th on the combined standings.
It was a more challenging Friday for Remy Gardner. The Australian rider made a solid start to the weekend in Free Practice 1, finishing 14th with a 1’29.354 after also working through different tyre options. Gardner headed into FP2 with confidence, but his session came to an early end after a crash at Turn 1.
Both riders will be back on track tomorrow for Free Practice 3, followed by Tissot Superpole at 11:15 local time and Race 1 at 15:30.
FULL FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
Stefano Manzi: P15 (1’29.275)
“It was a productive Friday. We tried several different options, and now we’ll analyse the data carefully to understand what works best for us for the rest of the weekend. We worked with different tyres, mainly focusing on race distance, and I’m confident that, working together as a team, we can find some good performance. Of course, qualifying will be important. It has been one of our weaker areas this year, but I believe we have the potential to be quick over a single lap, and that will be crucial to starting the races from a strong position. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Remy Gardner: P16 (1’29.354)
“Unfortunately, we only had one full session on track today, where we worked with different tyre options. The plan was to do the same in Free Practice 2 and focus on race distance, but unfortunately I crashed at Turn 1 early in the session. I felt that something was a little strange with the track, and you could see that Yari (Montella) had also crashed at the same corner shortly before me. Then, after my crash, the red flag came out. Unfortunately, we’re missing some important data as a result, but I’m confident we can still be competitive and work in the right direction to have two strong races this weekend.”
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