Remy Gardner: We cannot afford to have more rounds like this

It was a tale of two sides for Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider Remy Gardner who started on the fifth row of the grid and made his way up to seventh by the chequered flag.

The race wasn't without its issues, with the Australian having to take a long lap penalty after causing a collision with Somkiat Chantra at turn 14.

Although Gardner didn't lose a place due to the long lap penalty, it did put him out of touch with the next group of riders.

Gardner's teammate Raúl Fernández had made his way into P1 and took the Australians championship lead. However, a dramatic crash into turn eight from Fernández cost him the win and meant Gardner went from losing his place atop the championship standings and instead, coming away from the weekend with an 18-point lead.

"It has been a weekend with many ups and downs," Gardner said.

"In the end, we were lucky and we have taken some important points. However, we cannot afford to have more rounds like this if we want to fight for the championship.

"We decided on our tyre following the choice made by the rest of the grid, but unfortunately it didn't work out so well for us and I was left behind in the group. In addition, we had an incident with another rider and we had to serve a long lap penalty.

"I'm sorry about what happened. From there I tried to fight back as fast as I could, and finally, we finished seventh."

Gardner remains in the lead of the standings with 280 points, ahead of Fernández with 262 and Marco Bezzecchi with 206.

The championship will return in two weeks for the Algarve Grand Prix, the season's penultimate round, on November 5th-7th.

What drama in #Moto2 😲@GardnerRemy only finished in seventh, but his title rival @25RaulFernandez failed to finish 🤯 #EmiliaRomagnaGP pic.twitter.com/njLQ43RpXM

— Australian MotoGP™ (@ausmotogp) October 24, 2021