Image: Supplied.

Australia’s Remy Gardner is firmly focused forward after a challenging Sunday in Catalunya, looking to ‘take some good data and improve our performance’ ahead of the upcoming Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) round at Misano.

Gardner qualified an improved P7 at the Spanish circuit, outlining after the prior round at an Assen that his superpole performance was a key area he wanted to strengthen.

The number 87 banked a P10 finish in the opening race on Saturday afternoon, despite racing the majority of the bout with a severely bent exhaust due to early contact. A technical issue forced Gardner to retire in the superpole race, before finishing the final race of the weekend in 13th position.

“To be honest, that was a tough weekend,” Gardner said. “We struggled to find a competitive pace, but we got to improve the qualifying, which was helpful for the feature race. Unfortunately, I was forced to retire in the Superpole race due to a technical issue and had to start from P11 in the last feature race.

“Anyway, we’ll have a test next week and we hope to ride in the dry to take some good data and improve our performance. I’d like to thank the team for the job done, let’s stay positive and just focus on what’s next.”

The Superbike World Championship heads to the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli this week for a two-day test on 11-12 May, before round five of the 2023 season takes place at the venue on 2-4 June.