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The Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round was an eventful weekend for the FIM Supersport World Championship’s Yamaha riders, including crashes, wins, disappointments and a breakout performance. Yamaha’s pleasant surprise of the weekend, Spanish rookie Roberto Garcia (GMT94-YAMAHA) shined on his WorldSSP debut, landing a P6 finish in Race 2 at Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”.

Sitting across the garage for the first time from veteran rider Lucas Mahias, Garcia was selected to fill the vacant spot left behind by Michael Rinaldi after he departed the WorldSSP grid to re-join the WorldSBK grid in light of Tito Rabat and Yamaha Motoxracing’s mutual separation. Before being selected for the seat, the 19-year-old from Sevilla distinguished himself as one of the premier riders in the Moto2 European Championship, finishing seventh place in 2022 and fifth place in 2023 before being crowned Champion in 2024.

“I’m very happy, it was my first weekend in this Championship and my first feeling with the Yamaha R9 was very good” – Garcia on his impressive debut

The #37’s first WorldSSP weekend began with a P20 in the Tissot Superpole session, finishing just ahead of fellow rookie and Yamaha rider Aldi Mahendra (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros Team) by just 0.112s. He showed promise in Race 1, jumping to P16 by the end of the first lap, climbing as high as P14 in Lap 7 before falling back down to finish P16.

 Race 2, however, was the gem of the Sevillano’s weekend. Another strong start at lights out sent him up to P14 by the end of Lap 1, continuing up the grid as the laps piled up. After Championship leader Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) crashed out, by Lap 12 of the 13-lap contest, the #37 had ascended to P5. While he lost that position to Jeremy Alcoba (Kawasaki WorldSSP Team) to finish in P6, the rookie posted the fastest lap of the top six finishers, his 1’37.838s personal best was one of his two 1’37s laps, clocking in 0.156s faster than Race 2 winner Can Oncu. (Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros Team) who only registered one lap in the 1’37s. Garcia’s pace was not a flash in the pan either, after the opening lap, #37 registered only one lap slower than the 1’38s mark, pace nearly on par with Oncu despite engaging in battle after battle as he fought his way up from P20.

On his strong Race 2 performance, Garcia said: “I’m very happy with my weekend, it was my first weekend in this Championship and my first feeling with the Yamaha R9 was very good. I’m happy with my Race 2 P6 because it was good work to move up the grid from P20. Step by step I think we will improve for the coming races, thank you to Yamaha, my manager and the whole team. See you in Donington!”

ALL EYES ON GARCIA: “it was an impressive debut for a 19-year-old, and we are looking forward to seeing the next races as he understands the bike more”

Yamaha Road Racing Sporting Manager, Niccolo Canepa was glowing with praise for the 19-year-old who made the most of his opportunity with limited notice, saying: “The surprise of the weekend was Roberto Garcia, making his debut in World Supersport with GMT94 Yamaha. The schedule is tight, so he did not have a lot of time to understand the bike or the track, so he had to start in 20th. In Race 2 he did a fantastic job as he was able to climb up to sixth place and had the pace of the guys fighting for the podium, so it was an impressive debut for a 19-year-old and we are looking forward to seeing the next races as he understands the bike more and then later in the year when we head to Aragon, Estoril and Jerez where he knows the tracks very well.”

How will Garcia follow up his breakout debut round? Find out next time out at the Prosecco DOC UK Round! Tune in live or on demand with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 50% off!