Andrea Locatelli and Niccolò Canepa – Pata Prometeon Yamaha’s all-Italian line-up at Cremona – got to work on Friday during two tricky Free Practice sessions for Round 9 of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship, in Italy today.
As announced before the event, the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK of Jonathan Rea is being run by Canepa this weekend following his final race in the FIM Endurance World Championship – with Rea looking to return from injury in Aragon.
Canepa was one of few riders who took to the track this morning during Free Practice 1 following heavy rain overnight to gain valuable track time on the new WorldSBK circuit on Pirelli tyres. After two days of successful testing back in May, Locatelli watched keenly from the pit box and completed a couple of installation laps before the chequered flag ready to attack Free Practice 2 in earnest.
The afternoon session was fully dry but not without its challenges, as yellow flags punctuated the 45-minute practice on Cremona’s tight and twisty 3.768km layout. Locatelli finished the day within half a second of the front fight, confident to make a step overnight – while Canepa looks to refine the set-up of his R1 WorldSBK with the team.
Further opportunity to build pace ahead of the weekend’s races will come tomorrow morning during Free Practice 3 from 9:00-9:20 CEST, before Superpole qualifying at the regular time of 11:00 and Race 1 at 14:00.
Andrea Locatelli: P13 – 1'30.506
“It’s difficult to say something because we only rode in FP2, the feeling is honestly good – the gap is not too far, we just need to understand where we lost time and why. But I think we already have a clear idea about what we want to try to do, because we understand immediately about some small problem that we found today. We also made a long run and it is important to have this data to analyse and prepare for tomorrow. I am positive because we are not so far, we need to work hard to find a good solution and I am confident that tomorrow we can make a big step forward.”
Niccolò Canepa: P21 – 1'31.724
“First of all, I would like to wish a speedy recovery to Jonathan – we already miss him so much! About today, it was a busy day because it’s the first time on track for me and I need to get used to different tyres and a different bike, but I enjoyed the first FP1 session in mixed conditions. Finally, in FP2, we had very good track conditions so I was able to understand a little bit more. I tried to stay out on track, do more laps and try to get the feeling with the bike. We saw that there are a few things to change for tomorrow to improve my feeling and I’m looking forward to riding the R1 WorldSBK more, do more laps, get the feeling and improve my lap times!”
Comments