Yamaha on their Misano test takeaways – "Today it felt like I started to ride the bike the way it’s meant to be ridden"
Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli took to the track for both days of testing At Misano to tie down loose ends with their Yamaha R1
Pata Maxus Yamaha’s rider pair took to the track for the testing days being held at the upcoming Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round’s Misano “Marco Simoncelli” World Circuit. Six-Time World Champion Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) has hit the ground running since his injury at Phillip Island before the season opener, he continued this form, eighth fastest across both days as he looks to get back into the podium fight for the first time since last season. Across the garage from Rea, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) was not quite as fast, but was similarly pleased with the progress he and his team made.
“The gap ahead of us to the front even though we’re maximizing our potential is still too big.” – Rea on his team’s endeavour to bring the R1 back to the podium fight
Jonathan Rea’s foot injury suffered at Free Practice ahead of Philiip Island’s season-opening races ruled him out of competition until Round 4 at Cremona. At that round, his rust showed, missing out on the scoring positions in all three races. The #65 followed that up by righting the ship at Most, his pair of P10 finishes his best of the season so far. Most recently, at Misano’s test he kept up this good form and even built on it, cracking the top 8 both days.
On his Day 2, Rea said, “Day 2 was good, overall, we achieved the targets of the test, which was to complete some of the test items we had, do a race simulation, and some time attacks with the SCQ tyre. We had time to work on some chassis items, some tweaks to the suspension. Today it felt like I started to ride the bike the way it’s meant to be ridden, beginning to maximise the potential of the bike, which is good; but frustrating at the same time because we’re still so far away. We still need to improve massively. The gap ahead of us to the front even though we’re maximizing our potential is still too big.”
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: “We were working a lot on the bike and in the end, we found a good feeling, especially with the race tire”
After a very strong weekend at Assen, Cremona and Most were solid results for the Italian, while his testing times were off pace to replicate pair of P4’s he earned at Misano in 2024. Locatelli was not concerned about his placement on the timesheet after the conclusion of the latter day of testing on Wednesday. He and his team had set out to find answers to certain issues atop his Yamaha R1 and by the sound of it, ‘Loka’ and his team will return to Misano with positive takeaways from the test.
“We were working a lot on the bike and in the end, we found a good feeling, especially with the race tire.” said Locatelli, “I wasn’t doing long runs or race simulations, just around 10 lap stints and it didn’t feel bad. We need to work more to find a step with our lap times, it’s maybe something we will work more on during the race weekend as it will be easier to compare with everyone on track at the same time and on the same tyre. I think we did our work well, we weren’t searching a lot for the best lap time or using the SCQ tyre a lot so I’m not concerned by our pace.”
Catch the boys in blue as they return to Misano next round June 13-15th, tune in with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 30% off!
