A sunny opening day at the Cremona Circuit saw Pata Maxus Yamaha riders Xavi Vierge and Andrea Locatelli get down to work in Round 10 of the FIM Superbike World Championship.
Although the day began under cloudy skies at the Cremona Circuit, the weather gradually improved to bring sunshine and rising, still summer-like temperatures as the sessions went on.
In the morning, Vierge did a strong job focusing on race pace, gathering valuable information for the rest of the weekend to set the 11th-fastest time. He continued to make progress on his R1 WorldSBK in FP2, but a crash on a flying lap on fresh tyres as he looked to set a personal best lap time brought his session to an early end. The Spaniard walked away unhurt, finishing FP2 in 15th with plenty of useful data to take forward.
Locatelli, meanwhile, picked up where he left off from the rain-affected test at the same circuit two weeks ago. With one eye firmly on the race, the #55 dedicated the day to working on setup and pace, coming away encouraged by a competitive lap time in the hot afternoon conditions. The Italian is determined to keep taking steps forward in front of his home fans.
Saturday’s action begins early, with FP3 at 09:40 CEST, Superpole at 11:15 and Race 1 at 15:00.
FULL FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
Xavi Vierge, P11 – 1’29.194
“It’s been our first day here in Cremona and, even if the results don’t show it, it wasn’t a bad day at all. From this morning we were taking small steps in the right direction – the pace isn’t bad and the feeling with the bike is there too, so we know where we need to improve. Unfortunately, at the end of FP2, on the first flying lap with a new tyre, I crashed – but that’s part of finding the limit, and it happened in a section where you really have to commit to find the lap time. Now we’ll analyse the data, understand the crash and try to make another step tomorrow.”
Andrea Locatelli, P16 – 1’29.584
“Today we focused on finalising the best setup here in Cremona. We’re still looking to improve, but this afternoon, in the hot conditions, we managed a good lap time for our current level, which is encouraging. Now we need to identify where we can find more – there are still a few areas where I feel we have some margin. We’re keeping our motivation high and we’ll keep pushing tomorrow. We learned a lot today in terms of setup and the direction to take, so overall I’m happy with the first day – let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
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