Remy Gardner and Dominique Aegerter showed great potential on Sunday in Australia, eventually finishing sixth and seventh in the sprint race battling for the podium. In Race 2, despite facing misfortunes, both scored valuable points, with the #77 ninth and his teammate 12th.

The day started with warm up, where Aegerter and Gardner proved their speed ending the session in sixth (1’29.346) and ninth (1’29.426), leaving them ready for the remaining two races.

In the Tissot Superpole Race, Gardner enjoyed a decent start, joining the battle for the podium. After producing astonishing moves throughout, the Home Hero would battle his way to a solid sixth place finish, with his team-mate Aegerter just behind in seventh showing strong race pace.

After a long delay due to track conditions, Race 2 finally got underway at 17:15 local time. Starting from sixth and seventh on the grid, both riders had a solid start, joining for one more time the battle for a place on the rostrum.

Unfortunately, after three laps Gardner couldn’t avoid colliding with Jonathan Rea’s stricken (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) R1, when the British rider crashed in front of him, which also caused a red-flag stoppage, while Aegerter was fighting just behind in the heated mid-pack battle.

Because of the collision, Gardner dropped to last place and had to restart from there, with his Swiss teammate 12th. At the restart, both gave it all in a shortened 11-lap contest, with Aegerter recovering to ninth, but was later demoted to tenth after a penalty for overtaking under yellow flag. The #87 produced a superb comeback as well to finish 12th despite not optimal bike conditions following the collision.

Dominique Aegerter – Superpole Race: P7 / Race 2: P9
“Not the easiest Sunday but we still come back home with points and good data. In the sprint race I was fighting with the front group and our race pace was decent overall. Then, in Race 2, I had to restart from 12th after the red flag and to fight in the middle of the pack is never easy, ending up to a ninth position which became later a tenth place because of the penalty. Anyway, I’ll now have some weeks to recover and have some training, I’m confident we can enjoy a good season all together.”

Remy Gardner – Superpole Race: P6 / Race 2: P12
“Well, this weekend wasn’t meant to be. We had some good fights in the sprint race and the pace was there, unfortunately we couldn’t finish inside the top three even though we had great speed. I felt we could make another try in Race 2, but I couldn’t avoid Jonathan’s (Rea) bike and I ended up having some damage. The red flag gave us another chance, but I had to restart from the back of the grid. I think this is not good, but rules are rules. Although the guys made a fantastic job on making me able to go out again, the bike was not completely okay but we were still able to score valuable points. It’s a bit a shame that we couldn’t convert our race potential, but we have to take the positives from the weekend; speed was there and we made a great job, head down to Barcelona for the second round of the season.”