Jonathan Rea DNF in Catalunya Race 1 after “error on the grid”
Jonathan Rea and Paul Denning react to disappointing Race 1 🤡in Catalunya
Jonathan Rea did not f✃inish - and was barely able to begin - Race 1 in Catalunya on Saturday after an “error on the grid”.
Th💜e second round of the 2024 World Superbikes season🐬 got off to a terrible start for Rea, whose adjustment to Yamaha has been slow so far.
Rea was a disappointing 13th in the Superpole race, but in Race 1 he burnt out his clutch at the start, leaving him no optඣion b💝ut to retire before a lap was completed.
“Following a successful test aboard the R1 here last week, and after making significant 🍎progress during Free Practice yesterday, I was quietly confident about fighting for a good result in the race today,” Rea reacted.
“Qualifying didn’t go quite according to plan, but the longer runs yesterday where we focused on tyre conservation for the race meant a strong result was✤ possible today.
“Unfortunately, I fried the cl🦩utch off the start and didn’t even manage to complete a lap.
“I’m sorry for the team, who worked incredꦗibly hard in the run up to this race only for it to end on the first lap.
“But now we will put this behind us and focus on tomorrow, where we need a strong p♏erformance in the Superpole Race to ensure a good grid position for Race 2.”
Pata Prometeon Yamaha team 🍰principal Paul Denning added: “Unfortunately, JR’s error on the grid meant that he was unab꧟le to at least mirror Loka’s performance which we are sure he could have done – and it would have been great to have 20 laps worth of invaluable data.
“It’s a to♐ugh moment for an inc♌redible rider, but we are confident that this low point for JR will soon be matched with some highs.”
Yamaha's Andrea Locatelli P5
Andrea Locatelli qualified in 9th then finish✅ed Race 1 in fifth.
“Well, it was for sure a difficult race today, but I think in the end we managed not too bad,” ꦯhe reacted.
“We got the top five, but I am not happy enough so let’s see where we can improve and we try pushing hard tomorrow to recover somꦿe positions to try to make a podium.
“It’s not so far, if maybe we can find something we can be fighting again for t෴he podium.
“Today was difficult to manage both tyres front and rea🦩r, and we need to understand what we can work on and what we can do to try t🤡o be fast at the end of the race.”
Denning added: “Qualifying wa🍌s tough today and even though 𝔍the lap times were super close, ninth and 13th made the job for Race 1 more difficult than we would have liked.
“That said, Loka made an incredible start from the third row to be in fourth position immediately, and after t🧸hat rode a very well calculated race here in Catalunya.
“Managing the tyre wear is absol🌟utely the only priority, Loka felt the pace was a little too fast at the start for this, so he dropped back a bit but potentially looking at the data in hindsight possibly he could have pushed little bit earl🐽ier for fourth place or even the podium. Good job for Andrea and his crew, another solid race.”
James was a sports jou🐈rnalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everytꦺhing from American sports, to football, to F1.
