Pata Prometeon Yamaha Bounce Back at Barcelona Test
Pata Prometeon Yamaha riders Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli completed a very productive two-day test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya today, ahead of the Catalunya Round of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship in Spain.
The two men in blue finished the second day fifth and sixth respectively on the combined timesheets, with Rea’s time collected from just a single time-attack run before lunch. Utilising as much of the 16 hours of available track time across both days as conditions allowed, the Pata Prometeon Yamaha squad pulled out all the stops to test and improve the official Yamaha R1 WorldSBKs of both riders.
Transitioning from a super high-grip track like Phillip Island, to a low grip circuit in Catalunya can throw up a lot of challenges – but from the first exits on Thursday morning, both riders found a solid base setting with their respective crews, which gave them confidence to work through Yamaha Motor Europe Motorsport R&D’s extensive development plan in preparation for the coming races.
Riders and fans alike need not wait much longer for more track action, as second round of the season kicks off next week on Friday, 22 March – rolling out of pit lane for Free Practice 1 from 10:20 CET.
Jonathan Rea – 1:40.772
“We were able to really get down to business with no major issues. We tested some things back-to-back and found some clear positives and negatives, but we were able to tick most things on the list as well as some tyre options for the race weekend including a front tyre option from Pirelli. I was also able to do a race simulation for both the Superpole Race and long race. It’s very hard to compare, but it was very competitive and could be a fast race pace compared to last year. With that information and how the track conditions were today, at least we have good data to try to improve. We can be satisfied with the result and now we can start the “real work” to prepare further. The team worked in a really good way all through the test – we ran out of time you could say, as there’s always more boxes you could tick but I started to really feel more confident with the R1. Yamaha and the guys in Milan have done a lot of positive work and I feel like I can get stuck in and ride the bike and have fun. I had a smile on my face most of the test and always want more! We can be happy with the job we have done here and the progression made since Australia, it gives me a lot of confidence – I feel good and ready to start the weekend.”
Andrea Locatelli – 1:40.848
“It was an interesting day – It’s always a bit strange riding here compared to some other circuits, we know that on this track we can have some wheel spin compared to Phillip Island. In Australia the grip from the new tarmac was incredible, so here is another condition and it is important to learn and know what we can improve in the set-up to manage this. But in the end, I think we did a good job – I have good confidence and a good feeling on my R1. I am not 100% physically, because when I crashed in Phillip Island, I had some pain in my knee – the confidence on the bike is quite high like always but my feeling when I am trying to push is not quite fully there. We did a lot of laps, understood a lot of things but we will see during the race because that can be another story. We are always focused only on ourselves during testing to try to do the best job – I was happy we did a lot of laps on used tyres yesterday, but unfortunately today during the long run we had a technical problem so we lost a little bit this opportunity. Now I have some days to recover at home and I hope to be fighting again for the podium next week.”
