Remy Gardner "pretty distraught" after "podium potential" goes to waste

The top Yamaha rider for much of the weekend, Remy Gardner was in with a chance of the podium in every race of the Czech WorldSBK round.

After fifth in Race 1 and the sprint, Gardner went one better during Sunday's Race 2, finishing fourth.

However, the Australian had the potential to make that P3 but lost out to Andrea Locatelli. 

"Not the way I wanted to end this race," said Gardner. "We definitely had podium potential there and I'm pretty distraught, pretty disappointed we couldn't do it. 

"We had a really good weekend and I think we've led the direction of the bike, but not sure why, I feel like we didn't have the performance from the engine as we did Saturday. 

"I could already feel it in the sprint race and then it was exaggerated this afternoon."

Although the bike was working well enough to put him in contention, Gardner admitted a new engine could be on the way following his issues.

Gardner added: "The bike was working well. I was really focused on not burning up the tyre too fast. 

"It's like it wasn't driving like I was yesterday, so the boys need to have a look at what was going on. 

"We'll maybe be moving on to a new engine for the next race because it wasn't normal what happened. probably cost us a podium."

While Gardner had hoped for more, the former MotoGP rider was lucky to even finish Race 2 after being hit by Danilo Petrucci at the opening corner.

Petrucci was in to hot for the first corner as he took out Alvaro Bautista, while also clipping Gardner.

Disappointed by incident, Gardner said: "I felt someone hit the back of me. I thought 'typical people as usual' but I didn't know who it was. I didn't know who it was but I was lucky to get through the first corner cleanly. 

"I don't know why it's always the same thing with a dangerous corner. 

"Just relax for two corners and then do the race. Hopefully we'll all learn."