De Paul Gozzi / Corsedimoto.com
Yamaha will also entrust an official R1 to Jonas Folger during the last round of the world championship in Estoril. Will the German be a permanent driver in 2021?
Jonas Folger, 27, will take part in the final round of the Superbike World Championship in Estoril on October 17-18. The former MotoGP rider will have at his disposal the same technical package as that used during the Catalunya round, that is to say the Yamaha TZF-R1 “Factory”, managed on track by the Bonovo team. This addition to the original program shows that Yamaha Europe is very interested in the German rider, who is one of the candidates to join Toprak Razgatlioglu in Yamaha's internal team for the 2021 championship.
Not a bad start
During his Superbike debut on the Montmeló circuit,
Jonas Folger had to face a technical problem during the Superpole. Having failed to set a qualifying time, he was forced to start from the back of the starting grid in all three scheduled races. From there, the former Tech 3 MotoGP rider (2nd place at Sachsenring 2017 behind Marc Márquez…) made a good comeback and finished between tenth and twelfth place. But more than the rankings, what convinced was the speed with which Folger adapted to the R1 in WorldSBK configuration, very different from the one with which he won in IDM, winning all the races.
Blind start
Folger raced in Catalonia not only without ever having tried the “Factory” Yamaha, but without knowing the tires. In Estoril he will start with less of a disadvantage than in Spain, as World Superbike has not raced since 1993 at the track near Lisbon. No team therefore has specific references, and everyone will start from scratch.
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