Locatelli and Pata Maxus Yamaha on the Pace in Assen with Fourth Fastest on Friday
Andrea Locatelli continued his 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship campaign in fine form during Friday Free Practice alongside Jason O’Halloran for Pata Maxus Yamaha, as the Dutch Round got underway at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands, today.
Chilly early morning temperatures made way for clear skies and arm spring sunshine – with Free Practice 1 recording ambient temperature of 12 degrees Celsius, rising to 17 by Free Practice 2.
Progression was the name of the game, and all riders improved their lap times as the track warmed up in the sun – allowing softer compound tyre choices to be tested in FP2. For Locatelli, that meant a jump towards the front of the pack – and a fourth-quickest time overall – as he aims to emulate the last round with a podium result or better in Race 1.
O’Halloran also took a good step in the afternoon session, with further refinement to his seating position on the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK allowing him to get more comfortable with his #20 race machine ahead of his second full weekend with Pata Maxus Yamaha, standing in for Jonathan Rea. The Australian is targeting the next group of riders in front for tomorrow, with a points-scoring finish not far away.
Free Practice 3 begins at 9:00 CEST, Superpole qualifying at 11:00 and the full-length, 20-lap Race 1 starting at 14:00.
FULL FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
Andrea Locatelli: P4 – 1’34.014
“We started at a good point this morning already with my R1, I was quite confident and after a good FP1 we made some small adjustments because we didn’t try the soft tyre option until this afternoon. Today it was very important for us to understand if we can use this set-up in the race tomorrow, it looks like “yes” – we made an improvement during FP2 and I am happy with the bike. I feel like we can take another step forward, we will try to work on all the data tonight and I hope that for tomorrow we can fight for the podium 100%. We are not so far, we need to improve a bit still but I am quite confident we can be there tomorrow. We have to try for it straight away, but I believe we have good potential.”
Jason O’Halloran: P21 – 1’35.559
“First day at Assen on the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK and I really enjoyed FP2 today! FP1 was just about getting familiar with the track again and obviously, again back on the bike after Portimao. This afternoon the guys changed the seating position quite a lot for me and straight away I felt more loads more comfortable, dropped two seconds off my personal lap time which was great and now we’re within a sort of two-second range to first place which was my target for today. We can work on the setting more because I am more comfortable on the bike, and I think tomorrow morning we can make another good step forward and move us into that next group of riders which will be the target for tomorrow!”
