It was a mixed first weekend for Australia’s Remy Gardner in the Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK), but the GYTR GRT Yamaha rider was able to show promising sprint pace until that incident during the superpole race and looks to build in the rounds to come.

Phillip Island marked Gardner’s first competitive outing in the WorldSBK paddock, switching to the R1 following just a single season spent in MotoGP with Tech3 KTM Factory Racing.

In typical Phillip Island fashion, the former Moto2 world champion faced a variety of conditions across the weekend and finished 12th in the rain-soaked race one. Showing great potential in the superpole race, Gardner was in the podium fight when unfortunately he collided with teammate Dominique Aegerter at Miller corner which ended both riders’ races prematurely.

Starting down the order for the final bout, Gardner served a long lap penalty on his way to crossing the line 10th to conclude the weekend.

“First of all, I would like to apologise to Domi for the superpole race crash,” stated Gardner. “I’m really sorry, we both could have made a good result.

“Anyway, we have got to be happy with our pace; and we were fighting for the podium positions, which was beyond our expectations before this weekend.

“Starting from so far back on the grid in race two didn’t help, but that’s a lesson for the future. Now we turn our focus to Indonesia, where we will try and replicate the pace and potential we showed this weekend.”

Round two of the Superbike World Championship takes place this weekend at Mandalika, Indonesia, between 3-5 March as defending champion Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) currently holds a 28-point lead in the title race.