It was a positive round for the Pata Maxus Yamaha tandem of Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) at the Prosecco DOC UK Round. For his part, Locatelli stayed hot as he landed a pair of P4 results, and Rea continued his upward trajectory, finishing with a P5 and a P6, both results improvements from his previous season-high earned last time out at Misano. The pair now looks forward to the next round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season, the Hungarian Round at the Balaton Park Circuit, where the Championship will celebrate its 1000th race.

 #55 LOOKING FORWARD TO HUNGARY: “I will arrive with good motivation off of this positive weekend”

Locatelli has been in good form ever since Misano, and Donington proved no exception as the Italian rider landed a pair of P4s in Races 1 and 2, and a P5 in the Tissot Superpole Race. In the last two rounds, the lowest Locatelli has fallen down the timesheets is just P5. He spoke about the upcoming round at Hungary’s Balaton Park, which will host WorldSBK’s 1000th race, and the new opportunities it presents.

On his weekend and looking ahead to Balaton, Locatelli said, “I think it was a good weekend for us, we did an amazing job, especially on Saturday in Race 1. I’m happy with the weekend. I enjoyed it a lot, especially Sunday morning. I had a good battle with my teammate, and prior, in Race 1, I had good, consistent pace and was able to follow the front group. It was a good weekend, now we have to look forward, but we earned some good points for the Championship. Hungary will be a new challenge for everyone, so I don’t see why we can’t believe we can achieve something there. I need to learn more about the track, I don’t think it will be super difficult for us, I will arrive with good motivation off of this positive weekend.”

A GLASS HALF FULL: “Trying not to let Race 2 sour the weekend because there are lots of positives to take away”

While falling to P15 in Race 2 took some of the gusto out of six-time World Champion Jonathan Rea's tone, the Northern Irishman has much to be proud of in terms of his accomplishments in the UK Round. Even with Race 2’s technical issue-induced black eye -which he still took a point away from- Donington was his best round of the season so far bar none. His Race 1 P5 and Tissot Superpole Race P6 both supplant his previous season high of P7 earned last round at Misano.

“It’s a shame to end the weekend the way we did because coming from where we came from on Friday afternoon, the team did an incredible job to have us really strong on Saturday and Sunday morning in the Superpole Race. In Race 2, I knew straight away from the Warm-up lap that there was a technical problem with the front of the bike; there was a huge vibration when I would apply the brakes. I thought it might go away when the callipers heat up or you put some mileage on the bike, but it never went away. As soon as I lost rear traction near the middle of the race, it was very difficult to stop. It was getting so bad that my eyeballs were rattling around in my head. Trying not to let that sour the weekend because there are lots of positives to take away. Onwards and Upwards, I’d like to thank the team for all their hard work

On the pair’s performance in his home country, Team Principal Paul Denning said, ““Overall, it’s been a positive team performance at our home round at Donington Park – with Andrea scoring four-five-four results across the three races and keeping his fight for third place in the championship very much alive.” said Denning, “For JR, this weekend has been a massive step forward on the come-back trail from his nasty injury earlier in the year. A tough Friday was put firmly to bed by a stellar P4 qualifying run – his fastest-ever lap in his career around Donington Park – backed up superbly by P5 in Race 1 and fighting to the line with Loka in the Superpole Race. Unfortunately, we had an issue in the front brake system in Race 2 that created a harsh vibration, which will be diagnosed and investigated fully.”

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