Pit Stop to Seventh Place for Locatelli and Pata Maxus Yamaha in Phillip Island WorldSBK Race 1
The 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship got underway in earnest when the lights went out for Race 1 for Andrea Locatelli and Pata Maxus Yamaha at Phillip Island in Australia today.
With high hopes going into the weekend at his favourite circuit, “Loka” hoped to be part of the podium fight. But scorching temperatures and high winds at the ultra-fast island circuit made conditions challenging, and the 28-year-old Italian also had his work cut out for him starting from eighth on the grid this afternoon.
The #55 Pata Maxus Yamaha crew completed a smooth pit stop during the 20-lap thriller, but Locatelli found himself just off the back of the large podium battle and was unable to make enough progress forward to attack them in the later stages of the race despite showing very strong pace. His, Yamaha’s and the team’s aims are clear – to leave no stone unturned in their search for a step forward in performance to return to the podium fight tomorrow.
One final Warm Up awaits to confirm set-up changes at 10:30 AEDT (GMT+11), before the final two points-paying tests of the weekend Down Under: the standard 10-lap Superpole Race at 13:00 and Race 2 with compulsory “flag-to-flag” pit stop at 16:00.
SUPERPOLE RESULTS
RACE 1 RESULTS
Andrea Locatelli – SP: P8 / Race 1: P7
“In the end, seventh – just we recover one position from the start, it was quite a difficult race, really really warm! We were close to fighting in the top five, this was not our objective but it was maybe the reality after Superpole qualifying and a difficult Free Practice. I want to believe because we can have two more podium possibilities tomorrow – different conditions, different set up and try again. We can work tonight to change the bike a little bit and prepare better for tomorrow, but in general I was quite happy. We were also fast on the entry lap for the pit stop, we were competitive on the change of tyres and we did everything well. At the moment, nothing more to say but for sure we need to work to do more because like this for me, the result is not enough. I would like to try to make a step forward and fight for a better position!”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“A swelteringly hot first race day of the 2025 WorldSBK season – and it has to be repeated that seeing the red lights go off for the first time this year without Jonathan behind the handlebars of his Pata Maxus Yamaha was of course hugely disappointing. All our efforts have therefore been behind Andrea, and even if seventh is not a result that matches our aspirations, he rode a very strong race. We’re just missing a couple of tenths of a lap for the podium – after tricky test conditions and quite a difficult start to the race weekend, he and the team have responded well and we’ve got a much stronger base to analyse. We’ll try to take a step towards the podium battle tomorrow.
The whole team would also like to say a huge “well done” to Stefano Manzi, to everyone within Yamaha and to the TKR team for the first ever race and debut victory for the new R9 in WorldSSP – it was great to see, congratulations to all involved.”
