Spearheading the attack will be Andrea Locatelli – who is aiming for a strong weekend in front of the Italian fans, including many from his home town in Bergamo also nearby.
Based on current medical advice, both from his surgeon in France and local medical team in Northern Ireland, Jonathan Rea will miss the Italian Round in order to allow the skin graft and internal repairs to his right thumb to fully heal – with eyes firmly fixed on a return in Aragon next week. Rea withdrew from the French Round in Magny-Cours following a crash at the end of Lap 1 in Race 1 and underwent emergency surgery in Clermont-Ferrand on 7 September. The Northern Irishman has since focused on recovery at home, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions to assist healing.
Yamaha’s Official Test and Development Rider, Niccolò Canepa, will ride the Pata Prometeon Yamaha R1 WorldSBK in Cremona – joining the team for one final dance before his retirement from professional racing. Last weekend, Canepa finished third with his teammates for the Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team at the 24-hour Bol d’Or race at Paul Ricard.
Canepa will join the pit box with Crew Chief Andrew Pitt, who provides an overview of the new WorldSBK venue in Italy from a technical point of view, citing the main ingredient to be competitive across the weekend.
“Cremona is not a “typical” World Championship-style circuit, it’s a tight and twisty little track where the riders use first gear a lot and it is quite short,” Pitt explains. “Qualifying will be the most important part of the weekend, it will be critical to be at front because overtaking is going to be very difficult. We only did half a day of testing with Jonathan for familiarisation, but Loka knew the circuit already and was fast. We should be able to really use the best strengths of the R1 WorldSBK for the braking and turns – so, if we can qualify well, we should be in a position to be able to fight for some good results!”
The FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship returns in Cremona as well, with Beatriz Neila and the #36 Ampito / Pata Prometeon Yamaha entry. Neila finished fourth place in both races in Portimão last month and is fired up to fight for the podium once again, with three rounds remaining in the inaugural season of the series exclusively for women.
A jam-packed weekend schedule awaits, beginning with Free Practice for WorldWCR at 9:40 CEST on Friday, WorldSBK FP1 at 10:20, WorldWCR Superpole at 14:10 and WorldSBK FP2 at 15:00.
Andrea Locatelli
“I’m excited to be back on track, especially in Cremona because at the test we did a really good job. I hope that we can find immediately a good feeling on the bike and on track. Honestly, this week I think the Italian riders especially will race for Luca Salvadori. Luca was a special guy, a well-liked YouTuber and rider with the same passion as us – I am so sorry about what happened to him and the news of his passing was a shock to everyone, so for sure this week we will give something more also for this reason. Cremona is our closest “home race” and I think we will see a lot of warmth from the fans for this event. Magny-Cours was a difficult weekend in tricky conditions, but I want to be positive and I am excited to be back on track and to give my all for everyone – for Yamaha, for Pata Snack, for Prometeon and for the team and the fans. We will enjoy the races like always, but it is also important to take some good results and this is our target, so let’s see!”
Niccolò Canepa
“The news may come as a bit of a surprise since I announced my retirement a couple of weeks ago! But, to be honest, I am really proud to do one more race weekend – especially with this team, Pata Prometeon Yamaha, Crescent and Yamaha’s official R1 WorldSBK with this crew. I am really sorry for what happened with Jonathan and I wish him a speedy recovery. On the other side I am thankful to Yamaha for this opportunity. It’s always great to race for this team and to race for Yamaha in WorldSBK. Cremona is a track that I don’t know so well, I just did a few laps one day with the Yamaha R7 for the WorldWCR shakedown and I am aware that it is going to be a challenging weekend in terms of performance. For my job as the WorldSBK test rider, we may have something to test and if I can give feedback to help the other Yamaha riders on track then it will be “mission accomplished”. I am really happy and looking forward to the “very last” race weekend of my career now, so let’s see what we can do!”
