Fourth Place Finishes for Pata Prometeon Yamaha’s Rea and Locatelli on Sunday in Estoril
Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli both achieved fine fourth place finishes from Race 2 and the Superpole Race respectively on the final day of Round 11 of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship at Estoril, today.
It was a tale of two halves on Sunday, as Locatelli led Pata Prometeon Yamaha home with another strong fighting performance in the Superpole Race this morning, running in the podium positions until Lap 8 and earning himself fourth place and a P4 start on the grid in Race 2 this afternoon.
Rea went with his Italian teammate but found it more difficult to stay with the sprint podium pace. After dropping back to seventh, a front slide on the exit of Turn 10 saw Rea save his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK on his elbow but ultimately go down, losing places down the tight order to finish the 10-lap race in P22.
When the lights went out in Race 2 this afternoon, Locatelli pushed forward into the podium positions once again, but it was Rea who made the most progress from P10 on the grid to run just behind “Loka” in fourth place by the first corner. As the race developed, the #55 of Locatelli’s looked set to cross the line close to the podium once again but unfortunately a crash at Turn 6 on Lap 9 ended his challenge prematurely.
Running the same pace as his teammate and Iker Lecuona directly in front – a good step in front of the chasing pack – Rea was able to consolidate his advantage to bring home a strong fourth position after Lecuona also went down at Turn 6 on Lap 10.
Rounding out a highly-competitive – if not perfect – weekend in difficult conditions was a positive end to the Estoril Round for Pata Prometeon Yamaha, before the final test of the 2024 WorldSBK season begins in just a few days’ time at Circuito de Jerez on 18-20 October.
SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS
RACE 2 RESULTS
Jonathan Rea – SPRC: P22 / Race 2: P4
“My day didn’t start so well in the Superpole Race, which meant P10 on the grid for Race 2 but it didn’t really matter because I made such a good start! The launch to 200kph was great and I forced a good track position in Turn 1. Iker came past me quite early, and just away from the podium group both he and Loka were on a similar rhythm to me. I pushed to stay on their pace and try to catch them, but suddenly I found myself all on my own after they went down and I was actually a bit nervous! Then I just tried to do my rhythm and backed off a little bit from riding on the limit because it was a long race, trying not to make any mistakes and understanding my Yamaha R1 as the race developed. P5 and P4 results in the long races is far and away our best weekend and something to build on. If we look at the progress I’ve made and the team has made in these last few rounds, coming back from injury in Aragon and to rebound here was certainly positive. We have reason to be optimistic, we can’t give up on this, and especially now at the end of the season we’re starting to see some fruits from all our labour. I really would love to carry on this kind of result, battling inside the top five again would be a good finish to our year. A solid weekend in Jerez is the aim next before getting stuck into the off-season.”
Andrea Locatelli – SPRC: P4 / Race 2: DNF
“In the end, we can take some real confidence from this weekend because we were always in the front group! We showed our potential again and pushed to get the maximum result like always, and we were really close to the podium. We fought a lot yesterday for this, again this morning in the Superpole Race where we finished P4, and then unfortunately in Race 2 I crashed at Turn 6 while in the front group. But, we can learn, understand what happened and maybe also find a solution. I want to keep this motivation and the good feeling going to the last race of the season and to try to do the maximum again. I want to say a big thanks to all my crew because they worked really hard this weekend. It was difficult from Friday with the tricky wet conditions, then we swapped yesterday wet to dry from Superpole to Race 1 – they did an amazing job and this morning they gave me back a good bike to achieve fourth in the Superpole Race which is something positive. Now we are looking forward to arriving in Jerez with this confidence and to try to do our best.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Prometeon Yamaha
“Estoril is a great race track that I think everyone in the championship enjoys coming back to – and it’s been the scene of some brilliant performances in the past for the team. We take significant positives from this weekend: one of our riders finishing in the top four or top five positions in each of the three races, front row and P4 in qualifying and very strong, fighting performances from both Jonathan and Loka. If we consider that unfortunately, Loka crashed out of podium contention in both long races and that Jonathan tipped off in the Superpole Race which put him back to tenth on the grid for Race 2, overall the potential shown and results are better still. Honestly nothing to really complain about with regards to any of the crashes – both riders are racing on the absolute limit and it can happen to anybody. The most important thing is that Pata Prometeon Yamaha, Jonathan and Andrea were competitive, fighting hard and building confidence as we go into the last race of the year in Jerez next weekend.”
