Image: Russell Colvin.

A sixth-place finish came as a positive result for ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team’s Remy Gardner in his home round of the Moto2 World Championship, overcoming a difficult start to the weekend in a determined ride.

Gardner crashed heavily in Friday practice at the Pramac Generac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, but managed to bounce back on race-day Sunday for a good haul of points in a confidence-inspiring ride.

A clash between Iker Lecuona, Luca Marini and Marco Bezzechi into turn four on the opening lap split the field and then a late attack from Lecuona on Gardner cost the Australian any chance of challenging for a top-five result. Still, it was a positive outcome for the 21-year-old.

“I can’t be completely disappointed with the result,” Gardner reflected post-race. “It could have easily ended up worse, but I mean the first lap incident really spread out the whole group and we lost a lot of time there. I was pushing my heart out trying to catch, once I got part Marquez and all of them, but there was already a gap, unfortunately.

“That’s what happens when you start down the back and why I was so frustrated yesterday, but this weekend I couldn’t catch them. If I was there, 100 per cent I could sit in their draft and be able to fight for a podium spot, but the cards didn’t go my way – that’s racing.”

“Sixth it is and, you know, at least I finished the race [laughs],” he added. “This is a good building block, so we just need to keep working because we’re sort of back to where we’re supposed to be.”

As a result of his P6 finish at Phillip Island today, Gardner now sits 13th position in the world championship rankings with two rounds remaining. Today marked his best result since scoring fourth and Silverstone’s British Grand Prix back in August.

Image: Supplied.

Australia’s Jack Miller will wear a special one-off livery for today’s Pramac Generac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, unveiled by the Pramac Racing team at Phillip Island on Sunday morning.

Miller will start out of ninth position in this afternoon’s MotoGP affair at Phillip Island, the 24-year-old sporting an eye-catching Australian theme aboard his Ducati GP19 for his home grand prix.

It’s a major weekend for the Pramac brand, featuring as title sponsor of the Australian round and also fielding Miller alongside rookie teammate Francesco Bagnaia – who qualified in P15 this morning – on the premier class grid.

Image: Supplied.

Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira has been declared unfit for this afternoon’s Pramac Generac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix following his high-speed incident entering turn one during FP4 on Saturday.

The Portuguese rookie crashed prior to yesterday’s final stoppage due to the windy conditions, with painful swelling in both hands – despite no broken bones found – effectively ruling him out of action for race day.

“At the moment, the hospital was calling me and that’s why I was stressing out because we’re going to have an MRI today on the right wrist because it’s still hurting,” said Oliveira. “Obviously, they can’t see anything broken in the hand on the X-ray, but we suspect that there might be further injuries, maybe in the ligaments or something. We’re going to check that out today and have a full report tomorrow morning.”

Oliveira crashed heavily after a gust of wind caught him out at the end of Gardner Straight: “In my opinion, I think I got some turbulence from [Johann] Zarco’s bike but, in that moment I got hit by a strong gust of wind. Yesterday there was a crosswind on the start-finish straight and it was really hard for us just to go straight.

“For some reason, our bike was a little more sensitive to this and I was at 24 degrees [lean angle] from the moment I grabbed the brakes, just trying to lean in and, as you saw, it wasn’t possible to make the corner and the rest is history. I’m just glad I’m here talking about it.”