Despite coming under attack as he began to struggle with his rear tyre, Gardner managed to claim his second P6 of the weekend in what turned🥀 out to be his best WorldSBK round of the season.&nbsꦑp;

Third in qualifying, Saturday’s flag-to-flag Race 1 saw Gardner sl๊ide down the order after using the intermediate tyre for the first time in his career.

• Petrucci on epic fight with Rea: “We pass🔴ed each other so many times” 
• Bautista: “Anything can happen until꧟ the chequered flag”

Calling it a ‘daunting’ experience, Gardner then recovere🦄d by taking sixth in the Superpole Race. 

"It’s been a very positi🦩ve weekend," Gardner told WorldSBK.com. "We had a great qualifying and got lucky to be on the fro✃nt row. 

"It was an unlucky Race 1 with the tyre choice and that’s down to expe🌟rience wi🐓th those tyres. I had never run the intermediates in the wet before so it was a bit daunting for me. 

"I had a good sprint as well and managed to keep the front two rows. Then I was having quite a good race until around lap 14/15 - the rearꦕ tyre really started to drop and I saw the guys coming at me fast. ༺;

"They were closing the gap and I knew there no♋ꦐthing I could do. I was already on the limit. We were lucky to finish the race. 

"I had a few holes in the tyre just like To💮prak. We were lucky not to get a flat tyre."

Thanks to his best qualifying result since joining WorldSBK, and his performance in Sunday’s double-header, Gardner spent much of the weekend competing w🥀ith the top riders in the class, which has not always been the case.

Blistering, de-lamination and punctures were theꦡ cause of Razgatlioglu’s ty𝓀re failure, and Gardner admitted he was lucky not to suffer the same fate. 

The Australian did feel as though he perhaps pushed too hard early on, causing him to lose grip ꦐfrom lap 15 onwards. 

"I finally got to see🐈 the head of the race which was cool," added Gardner. "Maybe it made me push too har🥃d in those [first] 15 laps and use too much tyre. 

"The other guys were capable of saving the rear tyre better. We’re trying to make up a deficit with stra🤪ight line speed. 

"I think there’s a bit more we can get out of our package. Toprak is doing it and he was unlucky with his rear t♋yre situation. I t👍hink it was a confidence boost this weekend."