Andrea Locatelli (left) and Toprak Razgatlioglu at the team presentation of Pata Yamaha – the start numbers of the two, which differ by only one, are pure coincidence, because both were on the road with their numbers before that.

The opinions of the Yamaha teams and riders on the Barcelona test

The blue-red factory team had an unpleasant surprise on the second day when Toprak Razgatlioglu had to be quarantined after a few laps. The Turk had been positive for a PCR test twice in a row and has been in isolation in Barcelona since then. Before that, however, Garrett Gerloff, one of the two Yamaha riders from the GRT customer team, was the man who made the strongest impression. Both times the Texan impressed with the third-best time, and possibly he will be the man who will be the third force next season to record world champion Rea and vice world champion Redding. Below are the opinions from the Yamaha camp after the two-day test at the Circuito de Cataluña.

Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha) – the reigning WorldSSP world champion has already settled in well as Michael van der Mark’s successor in his new team at Toprak’s side. There is little doubt that he can be significantly more successful as a rookie than Sandro Cortese before him.

Toprak Razgatlioglu: P11 – 1’41.334 / 79 laps: „Wednesday’s test wasn’t bad, not a perfect day for me, but I still feel that the new R1 has good potential for this season. After working with my team in the evening and looking at the data, I think the second day would have been very good for us as it was easy to understand where we could improve. I feel great, but unfortunately the PCR test was positive. This is out of my control, and now I’m just focusing on being ready for the next test. “

Andrea Locatelli: P9 – 1’41.258 / 179 laps: „I’m really happy about the second day here, we’ve improved a bit compared to Wednesday and the feeling on the R1 Superbike is a bit better now too. We got to try a few things but in the end we understand a lot more, and I am confident that we can take another step at the next test in Aragon. Barcelona is not an easy track and in the beginning we had too much rear wheel spin along with the guys we worked on to improve that, and they did a great job over the two days. Now we’ll see, but the position is not too bad for the start! Of course, we can still improve a lot before the first race. “

Toprak Razgatlioglu photographed by us on site after his opening win in Phillip Island (Australia) for Pata Yamaha. The next day, he missed the podium due to an unbelievable mistake when there was insufficient gas in the tank of his Yamaha R1. Before the start of the 2020 season, the Turk was seen by many as the upcoming challenger to Jonathan Rea, but he was not constant enough for that, actually like the year before. It was just that many journalists had apparently overlooked this.

The two riders of the GRT Yamaha Junior customer team

Garrett Gerloff: P3 – 1’40.497 (151 laps): “I like this route a lot, the new layout of Turn 10 – modified over the winter – gives it a nice flow. I feel very good with my Yamaha R1, and we have collected a lot of data that will be useful for us in the future. I am very happy because I feel strong in both the individual lap and the race pace. See you in Aragon.“

Kohta Nozane: P12 – 1’41.628 (163 laps): „ As always, it was my first time on this track. I didn’t expect this course to have so many ups and downs and on the first day I struggled to improve my lap time. On the second day we had a problem in the morning that slowed down our work, but got better in the afternoon. My goal was to go below the 1’42,000 mark, and I managed to do that thanks to my first run on the qualifying tire, which I still have to gain experience with. This track was difficult for me, but I’ve done more than 160 laps in total, and I’m very happy with the job.“

Kohta Nozane (GRT Yamaha) – the reigning Japanese Superbike champion has done an excellent job so far and it will be interesting to see how he will stay at the side of the American in his rookie season.

The team boss of the Pata Yamaha factory team for the 2 days in Barcelona

Paul Denning zu Locatelli:„It was a great opportunity to be here at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with the entire Motul WorldSBK championship field and see how the new developments for the 2021 Yamaha R1 turn out to be. For Andrea it was again two really progressive learning days and his performance has increased significantly, a excellent sign! In the two days he completed 179 laps without a single mistake, without a vertex and without a single mistake. This shows that a rough rate of increase is still waiting in his pocket. His very mature approach to learning his craft on R1 WorldSBK is very much appreciated by his crew and Yamaha, and being so close to the best of times is very encouraging indeed.”.

Paul Denning on Razgatlioglu: “Toprak had a somewhat frustrating first day by its own very high standards where some new components and settings weren’t quite working as expected, and we lost a bit of the improvement path. Still, he was very close to the prime. Unfortunately, as the team previously announced, Toprak’s result was positive after a routine PCR test. So we had no choice but to abandon the activities on the second day on the track. Fortunately, Toprak did not show any Covid-19 symptoms. He feels 100% well, with the exception that he was already very bored in the room alone and will not travel home to Turkey but will isolate himself here in Spain. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, his condition remains good, and he can hopefully join us again in the Aragon test in mid-April after the self-isolation phase. “

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