Remy Gardner and Dominique Aegeter returned to action as Round 2 of the FIM Superbike World Championship got underway at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, prioritising race distance over outright pace to sit tenth and 12th on the combined times.

The GYTR GRT Yamaha duo enjoyed a strong first free practice, showing good speed in the 45-minute session, where both riders used the same set of tyres throughout. Gardner was seventh quickest with a time of 1’41.784 while Aegerter was 12th with a 1’41.990.

Despite hotter conditions in the afternoon session, the story was the same with Gardner and Aegerter’s respective crews focusing their work on race distance. Completing two solid and consistent long runs, Gardner was eighth (1’41.990) and Aegerter 12th (1’42.116).

Remy Gardner: P10 (1’41.784)
“It wasn’t a bad day to be honest, even though the final position is not the one we desire. We only focused on race distance to be ready for a long race, it will be very important to save the tyres and be consistent throughout the 20 laps. We’ll now check the data to see the areas where we can have an improvement, but I think we’re prepared for the races.”

Dominique Aegerter: P12 (1’41.990)
“It was a positive Friday overall, despite the final position. Our main concern was the long distance, so we tried different solutions and focused on getting the most out of our tyres as we will have to do 20 laps in the long races. I’m satisfied with the work overall as we were able to improve the feeling from the test. We’re aware that we need a good qualifying, but I feel the job we’ve done will pay off.”