Gardner’s best MotoGP round so far despite missing points

Remy Gardner’s British Grand Prix weekend was his best in MotoGP to date despite scoring no points, according to Tech3 KTM boss Herve Poncharal.

The 2021 Moto2 world champion had qualified what was statistically a career-best 16th on the grid at Silverstone and ran as high as 13th, as late as Lap 5.

Gardner faded thereafter and would eventually take the chequered flag in 18th, hence failing to add to his total of nine championship points.

Poncharal, however, declared the weekend a positive for the Sydney native.

“Tech3 KTM Factory Racing got its best qualifying result of the season with Remy Gardner starting from P16, and we were hoping that we could reach the points because it was a really promising weekend,” said the Frenchman.

“I think Remy Gardner just had his best weekend of the season so far: his pace was good, his attitude was positive, there was everything in place to do a good race.

“The race start was great and we were happy to see him with fast riders behind him, but his pace dropped after 10 laps and we lost positions, which is a shame.”

Gardner has been classified in the top 15 and thus scored points in four races this year, his best result being an 11th at Catalunya.

However, the 24-year-old had never finished any closer to the winner than 28.711s in arrears, when he got home in 17th position at Argentina’s Termas de Rio Hondo.

At Silverstone, he was only 24.579s behind the victorious Francesco Bagnaia, despite finishing a spot worse off.

“I took a decent start to the race and had a very good first half,” said Gardner.

“I managed to get my way to P13 and was feeling good.

“Around lap 10, some riders came past me. I tried to hang on a bit more to them, but the tyres were dropping so I tried to survive.

“Anyway, the gap to the front is the closest it has been all year, the pace was good, so it was a positive weekend overall.”

Tech3 KTM team-mate Raul Fernandez finished 21st from 22nd on the grid in Britain.

Gardner is 23rd and the Spaniard 24th in the championship ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring on August 19-21.