Gardner eyes quick return after monster highside

Australia’s Remy Gardner has set his sights on an early return to racing despite a monster highside crash that ruled him out of the Moto2™ race at the San Marino GP.

The ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team rider was set to start from pole position at the Misano circuit before an incident during the warm-up session left him with a fractured hand and foot.

“Honestly, I have no idea why I went down,” Gardner said. “It was a big crash, but I escaped relatively unhurt.

“I am now going to Barcelona to be operated on and I hope to be able to ride next week, but it’s too early to say for sure that I can.”

Gardner showed plenty of pace across the weekend and was promoted to P1 on the grid due to Sam Lowes’ penalty from the previous race in Styria.

“Saturday was a really great day,” Gardner added. “We worked really well as a team and were able to come back from a tough Friday.

“I was extremely happy to be on the front row and with Sam’s penalty, I was P1 on the grid.

“I knew the Italian riders would be fast here in Misano, so the target was to do a good race and leave with some strong points.”

With Gardner out, the Moto2™ race was won by Luca Marini (SKY Racing Team VR46), who extended his championship lead, followed by Marco Bezzecchi (SKY Racing Team VR46) and Enea Bastianini (Italtrans Racing Team).

Moto2™ returns to racing this weekend, again at Misano, on 18-20 September.

Moto2™ 2020 World Championship Standings

1. Luca Marini - 112
2. Enea Bastianini - 95
3. Marco Bezzecchi - 85
4. Jorge Martin - 79
5. Tetsuta Nagashima - 68