WorldSBK Estoril: ‘Experience and trust’ key for Locatelli

Andrea Locatelli, the other factory Yamaha rider in WorldSBK, had a respectable weekend in Portugal, especially on Sunday.

Like everyone else in WorldSBK this season, he and all of the riders who are not Rea, Razgatlioglu and Bautista, are still waiting for their first chance to join a podium ceremony.

Something Locatelli is aware of, even though he felt his weekend improved to Sunday’s finale. “Yes, it’s a good weekend,” said the second year WorldSBK rider. “We close today in the P5, but the gap was not so big with respect to yesterday. So for sure, we improved. My group of my team, we improved a lot the bike, so I’m so happy about it. Yesterday it was a little bit difficult. Today we worked a little bit to improve a little bit on the exit of the corner, especially on the speed of the bike. So, we improved a lot on this part so we can close a little bit more the gap.”

The question for now, for Locatelli as a would-be World Champion in this class, after being a convincing champion in WorldSSP two years ago, is how to bridge the gap to those modern WorldSBK trifecta members?

“I think Jonny has a lot of experience and he’s six-time world champion,” Locatelli said. “Toprak rides a bike like never I’ve seen one rider ride a bike. About Bautista, I don’t know, but probably has something more on the bike so he can stay in front. About me, I think I need to learn a little bit more on the bike. I need to push a little bit more on the bike. It’s just my second year. I need to do a little bit more experience because I have a bit of experience, but it’s just my second year. It’s not my tenth year. So, for sure, this is a good point. For example, I think Iker is a good rider but also coming from MotoGP. For sure, this year he is a