Italian Pata Prometeon Yamaha rider Andrea Locatelli shone at his “home race,” taking a strong fourth place finish in front of a busy crowd at the Emilia-Romagna Round of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship today.

While Misano’s high-speed layout and low-grip surface hasn’t been his happiest hunting ground in the past, Locatelli had one of the best rides of his season so far despite missing out on the podium. A productive Superpole meant he started from P6 and the second row of the grid, where he immediately made progress on the opening lap to run in fifth position. A hard pass on Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) and later, a battle with Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha) were highlights of Race 1 before Locatelli brought his #55 Pata Prometeon Yamaha R1 WorldSBK home with a fine fourth place.

By contrast, it was a day to forget for teammate Jonathan Rea after a disappointing Superpole qualifying session put him on the fifth row of the grid for Race 1, further compounded by a high-speed crash on the opening lap at Turn 13 that took the Northern Irishman out of the contention. Rea was lucky to escape with bruising to his left hand and right knee, and hopes to come back to find confidence again tomorrow.

The final day in Misano starts at 9:00 CEST with a short Warm-Up followed by the Superpole Race at 11:00 and Race 2 at 14:00.

Andrea Locatelli – SP: P6 / Race 1 P4

“It was one of the best races we’ve had in Misano. We did well during the test, so I was sure that we could do a good race here and I believed in myself and the R1. From the beginning of the year we have made a lot of progress and we always try to make a step forward – we’ve done well here and it’s only Race 1! I believe that tomorrow we can do a little bit better, I would like to finish on the podium. It’s not so far, but it will not be easy because we know our competitors are strong. Let’s see, but the opportunity is there so we will try. We have a lot of support here from Yamaha, and I never feel any extra pressure here for my “home race” probably because Yamaha has become like my family. What we feel here in Misano this weekend is something positive, in the past Misano was probably not the best for my riding style but step-by-step and year-by-year I can probably adapt better with more experience, so what we did today was a step forward.”

Jonathan Rea – SP: P15 / Race 1: DNF

“Really frustrated, because my race ended before it had begun. It was a knock-on effect from a bad qualifying, being in the middle of a mess in the first corners and then when things started stringing out in the fast section, I got quite close to Aegerter in the fast Turn 12 and just opened up the line a little bit to create some space but ran over the shoulder of the corner and to be honest from that moment, it was just a blur really – it was that fast. I went down and it felt like I was tumbling forever, but I’m so thankful to have good protection from Alpinestars and Arai – they kept me safe today, apart from a few bumps and bruises, but I should be good for tomorrow. The target is to try to get some good feeling tomorrow, make a good start and start finding some confidence.”

Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Prometeon Yamaha:

“This afternoon’s Race 1 at Misano was absolutely two different stories on each side of the garage. For Loka, a strong qualifying was followed up by one of his best race performances of the year, despite not being on the podium. Misano has always been a struggle for him to achieve what he’s capable of, but this year he’s turned that around to come forward as well as he did, finish P4 and effectively be “best of the rest” given the level of the top three. Well done and a big congrats to Andrea, to Tom and to all of his crew for continuing to build the confidence and performance. Qualifying was a disaster for Jonathan – in WorldSBK 2024, a tenth of a second makes five places and half a second, ten places. We weren’t a million miles away but the position was disappointing. He felt better on a revised setting on the sighting laps, but unfortunately a huge crash on Lap 1 at Turn 13 means that we don’t have any more information and we didn’t get a chance to build the flow and confidence going into tomorrow – but the most critical point is that Jonathan is more or less ok. We’ll keep our heads, keep positive and do everything we can to help JR come back to his true level and climb out of this difficult moment as a team.”

Local Italian rider Andrea Locatelli took another strong fourth-place finish in the 10-lap Superpole Race this morning, before crossing the line P5 in Race 2 of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship at Misano World Circuit today.

The strongest weekend “at home” in Misano for Locatelli since his ascension to the WorldSBK premier class in 2021 was a welcome positive, but both “Loka” and his crew were left wanting more especially after a battle for the podium with Alvaro Bautista (Ducati) in Race 2.

Following a major crash yesterday afternoon and despite damage to his left hand, teammate Jonathan Rea was cleared as fit to ride and ground out two top-ten results, an eighth in the morning’s 10-lap Superpole Race and tenth in Race 2 after a mistake from another rider put him on the back foot on the opening lap.

The results were little consolation to a difficult weekend and Rea will focus on recovery from the injury to be fit for his and the team’s own home round at Donington Park next month, from 12-14 July.

Andrea Locatelli – SPRC: P4 / Race 2: P5

“Honestly, I would like to do more and I would like to be on the podium, especially today at my home race and with great support from my fans from all over Italy. But we know we need to continue working and believe in ourselves, and continue to make progress forward to be there. Today for sure was not easy, but we got a lot of points, we didn’t make any mistakes and took a lot of confidence for the coming races. We had a good weekend and I would have liked to fight for the podium like at some other track where we have been stronger and can fight more with our competitors, but I think we did a good job, we were working very well and I want to say thanks to the guys for their efforts. It is always difficult in the hot conditions in Misano but we were a big step faster compared to last year, we raced at full gas and did our best – so, overall, not too bad!”

Jonathan Rea – SPRC: P8 / Race 2: P10

“Obviously a really disappointing weekend but I also have to feel very fortunate that I got away with that crash yesterday, because it was a huge one and aside from having a pretty sore left wrist and hand, physically on the bike I was not so bad. I made two good starts today in both races, apart from where I got tangled up with Remy out-braking himself at Turn 8 on the first lap of Race 2 and I lost a lot of track position. But I just struggled to really get down to business when the tyre was fresh. The race came to me a little bit better at the end when the tyre was moving, but I couldn’t get the best out of the bike at the beginning and didn’t have the confidence. The current performance level is frustrating, but it's clear that the R1 can be competitive so we need to find a way to translate my feeling to adapt and make changes that help me to get the best out of this package.”

Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Prometeon Yamaha:

“It was nice to see a big and enthusiastic crowd in Misano this weekend and even if the team was not quite able to achieve the results we were hoping for, which is to be on the podium, we’ve got to be pleased with Loka’s performance in qualifying and all three races. Misano has always been a tough track for him and 2024 has seen a huge step forward in performance compared to last year. He was able to back up yesterday’s fourth place with the same result in the Superpole Race this morning, but a huge slide and a very near crash when fighting with Bautista for third position dropped him back a long way and meant that in the end, fifth place was the best he could do. On JR’s side it’s a positive that he was even able to ride today. His left hand is swollen and very painful – so to grind out two top-ten results has to be seen as a positive based on what could have happened in such a major accident yesterday. Clearly, JR, Yamaha and the team are a million miles away from satisfied with those results: so now it’s time to breathe a little bit, for JR to get back to full fitness and to go step-by-step towards producing the speed that we all know he and the R1 are capable of.”