Jonathan Rea: Yamaha R1 Clutch Out, Still Zero Points, I’m Not As Good As You!

RiderTua.com – It’s hard to believe, after 4 races with Yamaha, Jonathan Rea, who is the most successful superbike rider, still hasn’t scored any points in the 2024 season. What if Rea and Toprak met to discuss Yamaha? maybe Rea said, Yamaha  bikes are not easy, I’m not as good as you bro… The weekend race in Catalunya started with unsatisfactory results. Only finished 15th in the third practice session and was followed by 13th in Superpole. But he started the first race in 12th position thanks to a grid penalty received by Alvaro Bautista (Ducati). However, this was of little use because the driver from Northern Ireland entered the pit after only finishing the first lap. What initially looked like a technical failure on his  bike turned out to be actually experienced by Rea.

Unfortunately Rea’s Yamaha clutch gave out at the start of the lap and he couldn’t even complete a single lap. He felt sad for the team who worked so hard only to finish the race in the first lap. “We will forget about that and focus on Sunday. We need a strong result in the Superpole race to secure a good starting position for the second race,” said the 6-time Superbike World Champion optimistically.

Jonathan Rea: Yamaha R1 Clutch Out, Still Zero Points!

Jonathan Rea drove alone

Rea revealed that without clutch problems, a good finish in the first race could have happened. After a good test a week ago and real progress in free practice, Rea is confident he can fight for a good result in today’s race. Although the qualifying session did not go according to plan, a good result was achieved thanks to a long ride on Friday, where Yamaha focused on tire durability, explained the 37-year-old rider.

If Yamaha were to take responsibility for the poor performance at Phillip Island, now they will definitely heed Rea’s words. Jonathan’s mistakes on the grid meant he couldn’t show the same performance as Locatelli, which he certainly could have done. It would be helpful to have valuable data from 20 laps of the race. This is a difficult moment for an outstanding rider, but Yamaha is confident this low point will soon be overcome with some important things, says team boss Paul Denning.

For information, his teammate Andrea Locatelli became the best Yamaha rider by finishing in 5th position in the first race in Catalunya.