Superbike: Difficult weekend for the Pata Honda team

With temperatures decidedly prohibitive for the economy of the CBR 1000RR Fireblade, on Sunday at the Misano World Circuit the temperatures exceeded 30° C in the air and 40° C on the asphalt, Jonatha Rea and Leon Haslam gave their all to obtain as many points as possible.

A difficult weekend, therefore, especially for the Northern Irish driver, who by virtue of a seventh and fifth place, loses further contact in the standings from Tom Sykes: he is now fourth with a gap of 52 points!
a significant decline if we consider that he was the leader after the round in Assen.

Teammate Leon Haslam also had a troubled day of racing, finishing tenth in Race 1 after an electronics malfunction with three laps to go, while in Race 2 when he was in fifth position he fell at the last corner: fortunately the little damage suffered by the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP allowed him to get back on the bike and finish in twelfth place.

“It was a disappointing weekend for me, because I feel like we didn't make any progress here in Misano. It was frustrating not being able to solve the problems, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I felt that way with my comments in the pits” - declared a frustrated Jonathan Rhea-“We managed to snatch a fifth position in race 2, after some courageous overtaking in the fast part of the track, but the leading group was too far away. I can only ride the bike if it works well, but I want to express its full potential again. We can't just hope that the next rounds go better, we have to understand what isn't working and why we weren't able to get the most out of the bike this weekend. I know that in the right conditions and on a day favorable to us, the bike is capable of excellent performances, much, much better than those of the last two rounds. The whole team is convinced that we are not collecting what we should, so we need to do our homework and find solutions as quickly as possible.”

“In race 1 I started badly and was slowed down for a few laps before starting the climb. Once I found a clear track in front of me, I found myself four seconds behind the group in front of me, which included Jonathan (Rea), and I didn't feel comfortable” - he said Leon Haslam– “I had previously had some small problems but, with three laps to go, the control unit started to cut power. I went off the track, restarted the ECU using the ignition lever and managed to restart, finishing tenth. In race 2 my start was better, but it was a yo-yo style race, as I lost in some sections and recovered in others. I was at the head of the group fighting for fifth position, but unfortunately another problem led to my crash. We need to understand what happened and start from there. I think we managed to make some progress this weekend and my pace improved in the race, but there is still some work to do before Portimao.”