Locatelli and Rea Back in the Sunday Fight in Challenging Czech Weekend for Pata Maxus Yamaha
Andrea Locatelli led Pata Maxus Yamaha across the line with two top-nine finishes at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic today, in Round 5 of the FIM Superbike World Championship.
While “Loka” led the team home on paper, it was Jonathan Rea whose spectacular starts and pace marked his return towards being a main protagonist of the WorldSBK class. Rea ran in seventh for much of this morning’s Superpole Race and looked set to improve on his 14th place grid position for Race 2 until the final lap, where he was just pipped by teammate Locatelli.
Despite another fifth-row start, “JR” was up to fifth at the first corner in the start of Race 2 with the pace to go with the podium challengers. Unfortunately, he was caught out in a collision at the “pinch-point” of Most’s notorious Turn 1-2 chicane, where 22 riders are forced to funnel into a bottleneck complex corner entry. Rea emerged unscathed but was given a double long-lap penalty, which halted his remarkable run.
Locatelli initially followed Rea in the opening laps, running as high as sixth, but struggled to maintain the pace with a lack of feeling on his race machine and dropped back to eighth in the latter stages of the final feature of the weekend – understandably disappointed to lose out to rookie Yari Montella on the closing lap.
In just one week, Pata Maxus Yamaha will return to the track for two days of pre-event testing at Misano World Circuit in Italy from 27-28 May, ahead of the Emilia-Romagna Round at the same venue early next month.
FULL SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS
FULL RACE 2 RESULTS
Andrea Locatelli – SPRC: P9 / Race 2: P9
“A not-so-bad Superpole Race, where we gained two positions to be able to start P9 for Race 2 – but then I was in trouble. I was trying to push to the maximum but the feeling did not come and it was simply difficult to ride well. It was a challenging weekend for me because after the crash on Friday I didn’t feel so good physically and it was difficult fighting with the bike. I was trying to do my best, we always try to do the best job that we can – but unfortunately, today we were far away. We need to take a step, we need to look forward and prepare for Misano. Fortunately, we have two days of testing and we will focus to maximise and try to make a good bike set-up to be ready for the next race. After winning in Assen, two bad weekends but we need to forget this and try again.”
Jonathan Rea – SPRC: P10 / Race 2: P13
“All in all, it’s been a positive weekend to be honest because I felt a little bit more competitive than I was in Cremona. I’ve made physical steps forward from the body point of view and also on the bike I felt much more comfortable, Most is also a track I know well. The crash in FP1 just put us on the back foot, but step-by-step throughout the weekend we’ve been making good changes to the R1. Today in the Superpole Race I was really fighting inside the top ten and unfortunately lost out to Loka for the third-row grid start. In Race 2, unfortunately got caught up in a first turn race accident and served two long lap penalties. Alvaro and I committed to the same piece of tarmac and that accident impacted not just his race and Xavi Vierge, but also Alex Lowes who took evasive action, so sorry to them guys. Before that I was feeling really competitive on my R1 and battling in the top five – positions I haven’t been used to for quite some time! It gives me confidence to keep moving forward in Misano and we have a test there to try some new ideas.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“Honestly a tough day for the team, so we have to look at the positives and Jonathan’s massive progression since Cremona is the biggest one. Just missing the top nine in the Superpole Race meant he had to restart from P14 in Race 2. Another incredible start up to fifth, matching the rhythm of the third battle in the early laps was a really positive sign for the future. Given the nature of the first lap chicane here in Most, incidents can easily happen and unfortunately this cost JR his third top-ten finish of the weekend. We also send all our best wishes to Xavi Vierge who we understand has an injury to his foot after the crash, and hope that he is ok for Misano. Loka managed to get that final third-row position in the Superpole Race, but in the end, it didn’t really help us progress – he had a really disappointing Race 2 and we need to investigate why we suffered this overall lack of performance, and come out swinging in Misano.”
