The Circuit Estoril provided Yamaha with a glimmer of hope after a difficult recent run in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) finished fifth and fourth in Race 1 and Race 2 respectively during the Estoril Round, while teammate Andrea Locatelli was close to the front even if he didn’t get the results to back that up. Yamaha showed a big improvement in terms of results at Estoril, with both Rea and Locatelli claiming a P4 finish, after recent rounds where getting into the top ten was a challenge.

Mixed conditions on Friday meant there was a lot of uncertainty heading into Saturday’s Tissot Superpole session, where Rea used his wet-weather prowess to secure a first front row start since Assen earlier in the year. Rea used his good starting position to full effect, finishing fifth in Race 1 and fourth in Race 2. He did crash in the Tissot Superpole Race at Turn 10, which meant he lost a top-nine grid slot for Race 2 but was still able to finish P5 for the final race of the weekend after getting a superb start.

When asked whether it was the best weekend of the year, Rea said: “Yeah, 100%. Unfortunately, I didn’t start my morning great which meant I started Race 2 from tenth. That didn’t really matter because I made such a good start. The 0-200km/h stage was good, and I found myself good track position at Turn 1. Iker came past quite early, there was the front group, then Iker, Loka and me. The rhythm was very similar, and those guys went down, suddenly I found myself on my own. I was so nervous! From that point, I just tried to do my rhythm. I felt like I was riding on the limit, so I just backed off a little bit, but it was a long race, so it was just about not making any mistakes, understanding all the sensations from my Yamaha R1 and pushing it to the limit without making any mistakes. 5-4 for the weekend, it’s far and away our best weekend. Something to build on but the gap to the front is still quite big but if we forget about that and look at the progress I’ve made, the team’s made, in the last few rounds since coming back from injury. Aragon was a tough one. To rebound here with some positivity, it’s been solid.”

For teammate Locatelli, the pace was there but not necessarily the results. Fourth in Tissot Superpole gave him a good starting position and he led in Race 1 before his rivals started passing him. His challenge ended in the gravel when he crashed at Turn 7. In the Superpole Race, ‘Loka’ secured a P4 finish, his first top-four result since he was third in Race 2 at Most, before another strong start in Race 2 put him in a good position. Unfortunately for the #55 and his team, he crashed from P4 at Turn 6, ending his weekend on a low point despite good pace.

Despite the two crashes, Locatelli was positive leaving Jerez, saying: “In the end, we can say it was a great weekend because we were always at the front, we showed our potential again. We did the maximum like always, but in this situation, we were really near the top three. We were fighting on Saturday and in the Superpole Race, when we finished in P4. In Race 2, I crashed at Turn 6. We can learn and understand why this happened but maybe we can have a solution for this. We need to keep this motivation and feeling to go to Jerez and try to do the maximum we can again.”

Heading into Estoril, Yamaha’s last top-six result had been Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) at Magny-Cours, when the Australian finished P6, and the last top-four finish was Locatelli’s Most podium (Gardner finished P4 in the same race). The new homologation of the R1, with a few rounds worth of data secured and utilised, has seemingly helped the Japanese manufacturer take a step forward.

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