Jonathan Rea to Miss Cremona WSBK Round

Jonathan Rea will be replaced by Nicolo Canepa at this weekend’s Inaugural Cremona World Superbike round, following injuries sustained at Magny-Cours last time out.

Despite small improvements in recent races, the six-time Superbike champion has struggled all season to get the Yamaha R1 working the way he needs in order to be challenging for podiums and race wins. Rea crashed in race one of the French round and suffered a deep wound and bone fracture in his right thumb.

The injuries suffered by Rea resulted in specialist surgery the same evening which subsequently meant he could not ride during Sunday’s superpole race or race two.

Rea’s Pata Prometeon Yamaha team said: “Based on current medical advice, both from his surgeon in France and local medical team in Northern Ireland, Jonathan Rea will miss the Italian Round in order to allow the skin graft and internal repairs to his right thumb to fully heal."

Rea will be replaced by Canepa, who was expected to retire from racing following the Bol d’Or last weekend. However, the long-time Yamaha and Endurance World Championship rider will now compete in one more round before officially hanging up his leathers.

Canepa said: “The news may come as a bit of a surprise since I announced my retirement a couple of weeks ago! But to be honest, I am really proud to do one more race weekend – especially with this team, Pata Prometeon Yamaha, Crescent and Yamaha’s official R1 WorldSBK with this crew.

“I am really sorry for what happened with Jonathan, and I wish him a speedy recovery. On the other side I am thankful to Yamaha for this opportunity. It’s always great to race for this team and to race for Yamaha in WorldSBK.

“Cremona is a track that I don’t know so well, I just did a few laps one day with the Yamaha R7 for the WorldWCR shakedown and I am aware that it is going to be a challenging weekend in terms of performance.

“For my job as the WorldSBK test rider, we may have something to test and if I can give feedback to help the other Yamaha riders on track then it will be “mission accomplished”. I am really happy and looking forward to the “very last” race weekend of my career now, so let’s see what we can do!”