Pata Maxus Yamaha’s home race hero Xavi Vierge persevered in punishing hot conditions to finish in the points in Race 1 at MotorLand Aragon today, Round 6 of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship, as teammate Andrea Locatelli frustratingly fell from contention on Lap 5.
The two riders hoped to take a step forward following Free Practice yesterday, with the aim to start the first full-length race this weekend from good grid positions. WorldSBK’s Superpole qualifying, where the riders have just 15 minutes to set the fastest time possible and the margin for error is very small, saw Locatelli line up in 10th position on the grid and Vierge 12th.
At the start of the 18-Lap Race 1, Locatelli aimed to make progress forward, but the team’s #55 rider lost the front heading into Turn 14 on the run down to Aragon’s long back straight. He was able to re-join at the back of the field, but ultimately pulled in to retire his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK from the race.
Vierge struggled to find a good feeling across the full race distance, with the hot conditions making generating grip to maintain lap-by-lap pace with the available tyre options extremely difficult. The team and Yamaha’s engineers will analyse the race data overnight in order to restart Sunday with renewed optimism.
Tomorrow begins with a short Warm Up at 9:15 CEST, followed by two more hot races including the 10-Lap Superpole Race at 11:10 and Race 2 to end the weekend at 15:30.
FULL SUPERPOLE RESULTS
FULL RACE ONE RESULTS
Xavi Vierge – SP: P12 / Race 1: P13
“It is a hard time right now, we are not able to take the maximum of our package – we are struggling a lot with these hot conditions, but everyone in the team is working so hard to understand the way to follow to get the good feeling back. Good things from yesterday to today, we had some problems on the bike that we solved, this is positive, but the biggest issue with the grip remains the same. We are focused on understanding how we can generate more grip. It’s true that with these extreme conditions, no one has grip but we are struggling more than the others. We will work hard this afternoon and let’s see if we can make a step forward tomorrow.”
Andrea Locatelli – SP: P10 / Race 1: DNF
“We were trying to do our best, we tried to do a good qualifying today – and for sure the potential was to try to do a bit better than what we were able to achieve. In the race, the temperature changed quite a lot, and we chose to use the new front tyre that Pirelli brought here – yesterday we were quite happy with this, especially with the predicted durability during the race. But, we saw from the front riders that it was maybe not the best choice and in reality, I was struggling from the beginning of the race. I tried to push hard to keep the rhythm with the others and to stay close with the middle group, but on the chicane before the long straight, as soon as I touched the gas I lost the front. Simple crash, I don’t have any injuries or anything so this is the most important thing. Keep looking forward for tomorrow because we have two extra races, the short one and then the long Race 2. I will try to do my best and we will fix another solution with the tyre and the set-up to improve again.”
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