Pata Prometeon Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli took the Best Lap Award from Race 1 at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France today, and recovered to eighth position after early contention for the win before rain wreaked havoc throughout the field.
In conditions where the rider and their confidence can make all the difference, it was ultimately an unlucky day for Pata Prometeon Yamaha on both sides of the pit box.
A wet Superpole with many yellow flags meant a “clean” lap was difficult to find, but even P9 on the grid did not stop Locatelli from a confident race start when the lights went out this afternoon. The 27-year-old Italian expertly worked his way up to second place on his intermediate-specification tyres before the skies completely opened up on Lap 3, causing a loss of front grip on his #55 Yamaha R1 WorldSBK when he arrived at the hardest braking point on the circuit at Turn 5. Despite losing a lot of time after the subsequent crash, he was able to continue, return to the pit box for rain tyres and recover positions with a strong race pace through to the end of Lap 21 – as many of the field fell foul of the wet conditions.
Likewise, Rea was confident of an opportunity to fight for a positive result in Race 1, starting the race aggressively on his choice of slick tyres. However, at the end of Lap 1, as Niccolo Bulega suffered a massive high-side directly in front of Yamaha’s #65 bike, Rea was forced to react to avoid the accident and also went down at the final chicane.
Rea has been transferred to a specialist hand hospital for treatment to a deep laceration sustained to his right thumb from the crash and will return to Magny-Cours tonight. A decision on if he will ride tomorrow will be taken in the morning.
Track action for the FIM Superbike World Championship class is due to resume at 9:00 CEST for the 10-minute Warm Up session, followed by the Superpole Race at 11:00 and Race 2 at a later time of 15:30.
Andrea Locatelli – SP: P9 / Race 1 P8
“In Superpole, it was crazy! In five or six laps, only one lap counted because of the yellow flags. Nearly every lap was cancelled so it was difficult to make a good lap, but in the end, we started from P9. The conditions today were tricky because when we were on the grid, the track was close to dry. We made the choice to start with the intermediate tyres and I was pushing hard in the beginning just to try to take some steps forward, because I saw that if it did not start raining immediately, the guys who chose the slick tyre would probably have a big advantage. So, I tried to give my all – when I came to braking at Turn 5, it started raining quite fast and then I was already on the corner. It was difficult to control the situation and I lost the front. I stopped for the rain tyre and in the end, we recovered a lot of positions with good pace. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time when I crashed because the bike did not start immediately – it was a bit unlucky but I can say that today I made a mistake because without the crash, we were on the podium. It is always easy to say this later! We just need to look forward and understand what is positive, what is negative and look forward to tomorrow.”
Jonathan Rea – SP: P8 / Race 1: DNF
“It was not the day I planned! I felt there was a good opportunity for us when we were on the grid and I was pretty clear with my slick tyre choice. Not a great start but I was making progress in Lap 1 and going into the last chicane, Bulega was a bit off line and went down so I just tried to avoid him on the switch back but I just got a wet patch or a bit off line and I was down as well. Unfortunately, my hand got stuck under the handlebar and on my thumb joint, the tarmac ground away the skin and it is really not very nice to look at. As soon as I saw it and felt the throbbing, I knew something wasn’t right and I ran directly to the Medical Centre by the last corner... Really frustrating, I was hoping to bring everyone some good news from the race today but unfortunately there is still a black cloud following us around at the moment.”
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