Jonathan Rea and Pata Prometeon Yamaha continued to make positive progress in a scorching summer Friday Free Practice during Round 7 of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, today.
Rea was today’s fastest rider in the WorldSBK field through Sector 2 of the twisty, rollercoaster circuit and with a highly competitive “ideal” lap time, believes he can edge closer to fight for the podium positions. “JR’s” first challenge, and key aim for Saturday, will be to set a strong qualifying time in Superpole.
Andrea Locatelli’s Free Practice 2 was slightly compromised by a small crash at Turn 5, and while the #55 crew was able to get him back out on track with just over 21 minutes remaining in the session, the tyre allocations available from Pirelli this weekend made it a little bit complicated to attempt a further race simulation on the preferred option. The gap to top five was half a second at the end of the session, one which Locatelli is confident to bridge in FP3 tomorrow afternoon beginning at 12:10 local time.
Superpole will set the tone for the first full-feature evening fight on the Algarve, with the shootout for grid position taking place at 14:45 and finally, lights out for Race 1 at 18:00.
Jonathan Rea: P6 – 1'40.936
“It was a positive day, but we started off trying to “budget” tyres for the weekend because we don’t have enough of what we expect to be our race tyre in the allocation. So FP1 was more about trying to build my speed, confidence and further understanding of my R1 again because it’s been a long time since I rode here in January. The guys did a lot of analysis after the last few races and we started here with a different race set-up than we would normally have from a chassis point of view. We didn’t change much all day, just worked precisely on electronics for engine braking and wheelie control because it’s an important track for this aspect. When we tried the race option tyre, unfortunately on my fastest lap I just caught a bit of traffic but I was able to chip away well. I feel positive but there’s still room for improvement, we’ll sit down with the guys tonight and try to make another step for tomorrow because it’s going to be a challenging race! A lot of guys have a good rhythm, so it’s important that we can still make a step to be competitive. The focus is on a really good qualifying and I feel with the new base set-up we have that I am able to push the tyre more when it is fresh – it gives me confidence for tomorrow that we can go out and try to set a good lap!”
Andrea Locatelli: P17 – 1'41.438
“It was a bit complicated today, especially in FP2. We were ready to work and do a long run on the standard set-up with the new development tyre, but unfortunately, I crashed after three laps so we lost time to repair the bike and overall the feeling was not the best. While we lost that time to understand the bike better in these conditions, at the same time we know where we need to be working so this is a good point. We have now info and data and I believe we can make a big step forward, because we are not so far away. The time schedule and the track conditions compared to the test is very different but we are looking forward to prepare for tomorrow, focus on making a big step in FP3 and then a good Superpole position so we can fight again in the race.”
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