Jonathan Rea has a major Yamaha breakthrough - but a headache still exists

The WorldSBK Misano test represented a breakthrough in how to properly ride his Yamaha for Jonathan Rea.

But it also exposed a problem that, even when the bike’s potential is realised, they still cannot compete with the frontrunners of the World Superbike Championship.

Rea finished eighth on both days of the Misano test earlier this week, before the sixth round of the season at the same circuit on June 13-15.

“Day 2 was good, overall, we achieved the targets of the test, which was to complete some of the test items we had, do a race simulation, and some time attacks with the SCQ tyre,” Rea said.

“We had time to work on some chassis items, some tweaks to the suspension.

“It felt like I started to ride the bike the way it’s meant to be ridden, beginning to maximise the potential of the bike, which is good.

“But frustrating at the same time because we’re still so far away.

“We still need to improve massively. The gap ahead of us to the front even though we’re maximizing our potential is still too big.”

Rea, whose 2025 started with an injury which kept him out of race action, earned his best results of the campaign last time out at Most with a duo of P10s.

Pata Maxus Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli enjoyed his first WorldSBK race win this season, and penned a new contract to stay with the team next year.

Locatelli was 12th and 10th at the Misano tests.

“We were working a lot on the bike and in the end, we found a good feeling, especially with the race tyre,” said Locatelli.

“I wasn’t doing long runs or race simulations, just around 10 lap stints and it didn’t feel bad.

“We need to work more to find a step with our lap times, it’s maybe something we will work more on during the race weekend as it will be easier to compare with everyone on track at the same time and on the same tyre.

“I think we did our work well, we weren’t searching a lot for the best lap time or using the SCQ tyre a lot so I’m not concerned by our pace.”

New face among Yamaha ranks at WorldSBK Misano test

Supersport championship leader Stefano Manzi got his first taste of WorldSBK action at the Misano test.

He swapped his WorldSSP R9 for the Yamaha R1.

“It was amazing, one of the best days of my life,” Manzi said.

“I have a super team, and finally, I have all day long with a superbike for the first time.

“It was not easy, there are big differences between it and the supersport bike, but I was able to adapt quickly, and we made progress from FP3 to FP4.

“We didn’t make any stupid mistakes, and we grew throughout the day, which were our goals, so the team and I are quite happy. The gap between me and P1 was high, but compared to the other Yamahas, we didn’t do badly.

“I tried to learn as much as possible, it’s super nice compared to WorldSSP, how all the Yamaha riders here share data, it helps a lot to see the riders on track and see the lines they take.

“I would have loved to have had more time on the bike; I would have liked to have had 3 hours more when I saw the flag at the end.

“There are many areas I need to improve, but I think that my braking points were not bad, that is something from World Supersport that I do well.”