Rea and Locatelli Return to Work for Friday Free Practice in Aragon
Pata Prometeon Yamaha returned to work with Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli for the first day of competition at MotorLand Aragon, Round 10 of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship in Spain today.
Rea, who was cleared as fit to race on Thursday afternoon by the FIM WorldSBK Medical Director following his injury in Magny-Cours earlier this month, got back up to speed quickly with the #65 crew. Finding a balance of set-up for the demanding Aragon circuit will be the key factor to instil confidence for Rea to ride on the limit with his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK.
It was a positive day for Locatelli, despite an unrepresentative time on the combined results classification, as the Italian rider focused on long run pace ready for the two feature-length races.
A simple three-stage schedule awaits tomorrow with Free Practice 3 from 9:00-9:20 CEST, Superpole qualifying at 11:00 and finally ramping up to Race 1 at 14:00.
COMBINED QUALIFYING RESULTS
Jonathan Rea: P14 – 1’49.933
“First, it was really nice to ride again and get familiar with my R1 in Aragon – I’m riding in a little bit of discomfort, but no physical limitations on the bike apart from some pain after many laps. In the hard braking it’s just opening up the top joint and pushing past the limit of flexion, but aside from the limit of my thumb, we need to really try to work hard on making the bike possible to ride more on the limit. The conditions were windy so it was difficult to find a really good rhythm and stopping the bike to the apex is the biggest problem I have – the confidence in the front to brake all the way to the apex and turn is a combination of chassis set-up but also the engine brake control so it’s about finding a good compromise between the two and trying to make a good step for tomorrow. Unfortunately, on the straight we’re suffering a lot and that’s really frustrating because it’s a knock-on effect to how we make the lap time. We need to stress so much on the side of the tyre to be with the other manufacturers, to then get to the straight where we lose out – so it’s just trying to balance everything better. Tyre consumption is ok and that’s a positive but we need to be faster – our “out and out” pace isn’t fast enough.”
Andrea Locatelli: P16 – 1’49.983
“From the outside, the full potential for us this weekend is not clear yet because we didn’t make a best lap time, as we were working to prepare for the long race and to find a rhythm. I am more or less happy with the bike set-up, we just have some small points that we need to improve but the feeling is good. I am positive and we’re looking to prepare for tomorrow, looks like we need to close the gap – but the reality is we never found one good lap to be more in front this afternoon, and the feeling is not bad! Probably tomorrow we can do well because I feel positive with my R1, we are just missing some points but I think we can make another step. A bit strange “Day 1” looking at the time sheets but we understand a lot, so let’s see!”
