Remy Gardner enjoyed a strong run to finish sixth in the opening race of the weekend at the Misano World Circuit, Marco Simoncelli, following a great Superpole session which earned him a front row start.

The GYTR GRT Yamaha riders returned to action in the morning with for the final free practice session, in which Gardner showed great pace to finish third on a 1’33.332, with Aegerter sixth overall with a lap of 1’33.571.

Following the strong final practice, the duo were confident to attack in the Tissot Superpole qualifier. In the 15-minute session, Gardner proved to have incredible speed to clinch a front row start with the third fastest time (1’32.906). His Swiss teammate enjoyed a decent run too, to secure a third row start with the ninth quickest time (1’33.234).

In the opening race under the Misano sunshine, Gardner got an amazing start to take the lead on the opening lap. From there, he remained in podium contention in the first half of the race, before struggling with deteriorating grip in the latter stages, dropping to cross the line sixth. A difficult start saw Aegerter drop positions off the line, but after that he began to make his way through to the field. However, a technical problem on lap 10 brought his race to a premature end as he was forced to retire.

Remy Gardner – Superpole: P3 / Race 1: P6
“I had a fantastic start and I was feeling confident leading the race, unfortunately I struggled a bit with the front tyre and even though I tried to stay with the leading pack, I had to conserve my tyres to the end. It wasn’t too bad, but following the Superpole I was expecting a little bit more, but we can take it as a positive sign, it means we’re pushing for more and we’re aware of our potential. We’ll now check the data to improve our performance tomorrow.”

Dominique Aegerter – Superpole: P9 / Race 1: DNF
“It was not our day at all. In the Superpole we went faster than last year but everyone made a big improvement and that made me start from P9. I tried to recover as many positions as I could, but unfortunately the start was not too good and I tried then to make my way through the field to gain places. Unluckily in the middle of the race I suffered a technical problem and had to retire. I’m sorry for that, but we’ll try to comeback stronger tomorrow starting with the Superpole Race, where we’ll try to win a better grid starting position for Race 2.”