Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) finished in fourth place on Day 1 at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve but perhaps the position didn’t tell the full story. He was just 0.099s behind pacesetter Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) as the entire MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field gathered in Portugal for the first of two days of testing at the rollercoaster venue; the last test before heading off to Australia.

Gardner completed 52 laps across his two bikes and set a best time of 1’40.749s, using Pirelli’s SCQ tyre, as he secured fourth place, although he did lead the timesheets on two separate occasions. He first went into P1 with around an hour left in the day when he set a 1’41.762s to dislodge Razgatlioglu briefly, although ‘El Turco’ responded almost immediately. Gardner’s fastest time then moved him back into first place before the reigning Champion responded again, fishing 0.099s clear of the #87.

While Gardner was unable to improve his lap time in the closing stages, both Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) and Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) were able to overhaul the Australian star – with four manufacturers finishing in the top four positions. Nevertheless, Gardner finished as the lead Yamaha rider in fourth place, although Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) was just one place and around four tenths behind.

Reviewing his day, Gardner said: “It’s been a good day. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the whole day. It was raining in the morning, and it took a while to dry out. It didn’t dry out completely in the end, we had some rivers across the track. I didn’t push 100% today just to avoid some crashes on the wet patches. Even so, we could work in the dry corners and work with some new test items we had that seemed to give me a good feeling.”

Yamaha endured a difficult 2024 campaign but will be hoping to bounce back in 2025, with new items being tested both last week at Jerez and during this test at Portimao. Gardner had them on his bike on Day 1 as he did some back-to-back testing, and the Australian revealed that he felt the items had been confirmed after having a positive impact on his feeling with the items. He also revealed he might do some running in the wet should it rain on Wednesday.

“It was the same items as Jerez,” the #87 begun. “We did some back-to-back testing, and, for me, we confirmed the feeling. Maybe they made even more of a difference here, so it’s been a good day. If it rains tomorrow, we’ll do a few laps. Not too many but we’ll do some just to confirm that we feelings we had in the last two years and see if the new items are helping us in the rain which we hope and expect.”

Can Gardner take this pace into his home round ‘Down Under’? Find out using the WorldSBK VideoPass!