Pata Maxus Yamaha’s Jonathan Rea took a massive step forward on Sunday, fighting hard in the top group close to the podium in Race 2 at Aragon, as Round 10 of the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship concluded in Spain today.
In another rampant Superpole Race this morning, Rea netted a P8 and third-row start for the final race of the weekend to give himself the best opportunity to push for advantageous track position. With improvements to his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK set-up to manage the available grip and tyre degradation, and most importantly, increased confidence in his package, Rea was able to come through to fourth position in the first few corners of Race 2.
Rea looked super strong throughout, riding hard to stay with podium-finisher Alvaro Bautista and later, Andrea Iannone, to cross the line just 0.6s from fourth place.
Andrea Locatelli took a crucial seventh-place in Race 2 to keep the chance of top-three championship alive going to the “double-header”. It was a challenging day for the #55 rider, who was not able to ride with the same confidence as his teammate and struggled further with front and rear grip on Aragon’s punishing 5.077km circuit.
Pata Maxus Yamaha, Rea and Locatelli look forward to Estoril in 12 days’ time, a favourite for riders, team and the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK, ready to once again challenge for the podium.
FULL SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS
FULL RACE 2 RESULTS
Jonathan Rea – SPRC: P8 / Race 2: P5
“Really satisfied with today’s work, and I want to thank my team, all my crew, because without testing here last month it was hard to come with all the information ready to go. We arrived with my bike from Magny-Cours and we finished with quite a different R1 after putting everything together and it was the best version of my bike that I’ve ridden here in Aragon. Track position was everything and I was able to get P8 in the Superpole Race, to be able to get away with the top group in the main race. Then I found myself P4 on the first lap and thought “wow!” – I made great passes and put myself in the right place. I tried to do a really solid rhythm, but when Alvaro came past – it was really difficult to stay with him. I was strong in some areas of the track and he was so much stronger in that last sector, I was doing everything I could to come out of Turn 15 and stay in the slipstream to try to get away from the group behind. When Iannone passed me, all I could do was continue to ride strongly and wait for any kind of mistake in front. He had a bit more pace than me in the last laps, but P5 is something we can be really happy with as a team. It’s not where we want to be, we’re quite a few seconds off the race win but it’s the best version of ourselves that we’ve shown in a while! It’s nice to go into the last two rounds with a good feeling.”
Andrea Locatelli – SPRC: P12 / Race 2: P7
“It was a difficult day for me – after yesterday, I was quite positive that we could improve the bike and try to make a step forward but, in the end, today was the most difficult day. We need to look forward and forget a little bit this one. It was not easy to arrive at a “new” track when our competitors were testing here, but from Friday we worked to do our best. Yesterday, we tried to stay with the front group but it was difficult because the front tyre grip was finished – and today, I was in trouble with both the front and the rear. We survived today and keep going, and we’ll see for the next rounds. I am still feeling positive, I like the Estoril track and we were fast in the past. We are looking to do our best there!”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“Aragon has always been a challenging circuit for the team and the bike for a number of reasons – and the 2025 race event was no different. However, the massive improvement in set-up, tyre durability and rider confidence that the guys were able to give JR today resulted in a brilliant run to P5, only a couple of tenths from P4. It clearly demonstrated that there is never any sense of “giving up” across the team and that taking huge steps forward is always possible. This was clearly shown by Jonathan’s overall Race 2 time being more than 18 seconds faster than Race 1 yesterday – a one second per lap improvement! For Loka, we didn’t quite find the same solutions and the feeling with both front and rear grip was not what he needed to ride at his absolute maximum. Another hard-fought P7 was, in the end, not a bad result and allows him to hang onto fourth place in the championship – and on top of that, it gives him a genuine opportunity to target the top three in Estoril and Jerez, two strong circuits for him and the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK.”
Posted on September 28, 2025 by Michael Le Pard
