Gardner the new champ rising in MotoGP

Last year, the Australian beat Ajo KTM teammate Raul Fernandez to an exhilarating Moto2 title, earning him a promotion with the Austrian manufacturer. Gardner is the son of 1987 500cc world champion Wayne Gardner.

Both riders have battled for form at the start of 2022, having been placed at Tech3 on factory-backed machinery alongside Fernandez.

Gardner’s pre-season was hampered by a broken wrist sustained during training, which has hampered him in the early races.

Gardner, though, acknowledges that he expected more from his year so far after finishing 20th at the Americas GP, 42.442s behind the winner.

“To be honest with you, I expected a little bit more, knowing what other guys have done in the past and how dominant we completed the Moto2 season,” he stated.

Only Brad Binder of the four KTMs scored points in 12th, and Gardner is hopeful that the Austrian marque – which won in Indonesia with Miguel Oliveira and was second in Qatar with Binder – has learned from its mistakes at COTA.

“I’m hoping KTM can learn something from this about how to better the package we have,” he continued.

“They’ve got four riders giving it their all, two excellent factory riders and one not in the points, and we’re obviously ending at the back of the pack, giving it our all in every turn.

“Hopefully, they’ve gotten useful information from it and can come up with a plan to move forward.