Rea Resumes Top Six Pace on Opening Day at Estoril for Pata Maxus Yamaha

Rea’s pace shows promising potential for the weekend ahead, while Locatelli and his crew will also continue to work overnight to refine their set-up that has seen the Italian rider battle for the top five all season.

The first of two race days begins tomorrow morning with Free Practice 3 at 9:00 local time in Portugal, followed by crucial Superpole qualifying at 11:00 and feature-length Race 1 with 21 Laps starting at 14:00.

Jonathan Rea: P6 – 1’36.539

“I felt good from Lap 1 really! We started with the same set-up that we finished with in Aragon and we spent some time evaluating the different front tyre options from Pirelli. We will try to improve my R1 WorldSBK a bit more tonight, we’re searching for edge grip – that’s the key area to work on but the bike is turning well and changing direction on the agile parts, so just looking for a little bit more grip. We did a race simulation this afternoon to understand how we can manage the tyre degradation, now we have that information in the bank it’s important to analyse and put into action some changes for tomorrow. I haven’t sat down to look through all the chronos of the other riders, so I don’t know yet how we fit in – but we also didn’t do a time attack lap. Maximising qualifying is always key and it would be nice to be back in the battle riding inside the top five tomorrow.”

Andrea Locatelli: P11 – 1’36.685

“A bit difficult first day – in a couple of sectors of the track we are in a good position, so we just need to work where we are struggling a little bit to find a good set-up. Let’s see what we can do for tonight and prepare the bike for tomorrow. We are competitive in some sectors, so if we can adjust in some places and gain some feeling to improve, then for sure we can do a good job. I want to be positive as always, try to do our best and push hard!”