Positive start to Portimao weekend

 In News

The GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team returned to action on Friday at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão as Round 2 of the 2026 WorldSBK season got underway, with Remy Gardner producing a solid Friday performance to finish 11th on the combined timesheets.

The Australian rider began his day with Free Practice 1 at 10:20 local time, focusing mainly on race setup for the weekend ahead. During the 45-minute session, Gardner prioritised long runs rather than flying laps, eventually finishing 16th with a best time of 1’41.683.

The afternoon’s Free Practice 2 followed a similar approach, with the #87 continuing to work on race distance. Gardner managed to improve his lap time by 0.8 seconds, ending the day 11th overall with a 1’40.879.

Remy Gardner
P11 (1’40.879)

“We saw some positives today as we were able to make a good step forward from morning to afternoon and close the gap. There’s still work to do, but we’re confident we can find more performance and improve further. It will be important to put together a strong lap in Superpole tomorrow to secure a good grid position for Race 1 and try to stay close to the front group.”