Xavi Vierge rounded off Friday inside the top 10 as Pata Maxus Yamaha opened the final round of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship at Jerez – a day that also marked Andrea Locatelli’s 30th birthday.
The Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto once again plays host to the season finale, bringing the curtain down on the 2026 campaign beneath clear Andalusian skies and temperatures far warmer than one would expect at this time of year.
Vierge made a solid start to his home round, setting the ninth-fastest time in Free Practice 1. As the temperatures rose further in the afternoon, the #97 and his crew turned their attention to fine-tuning the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK for the rest of the weekend, finding a small step with the used tyre to end the day inside the top 10 on the combined order.
For Locatelli, the day began in the best possible way, as the team marked his 30th birthday – even if it proved a trickier one out on track. The Italian spent both sessions working to find a better feeling, and while a technical issue early in the afternoon briefly interrupted his running, the crew made light work of it to get him back out quickly. Encouraged by the steps made as the day progressed, “Loka” and his team will keep pushing to finish the season on a high.
The FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship also returned to action after the summer break. Still in mathematical contention for the title – albeit with only the slimmest of chances – Beatriz Neila (Ampito Crescent Yamaha) picked up right where she left off, qualifying on the front row in third for tomorrow’s race in front of her home fans, while Chloe Jones (Monster Energy Crescent Yamaha) used the morning to rebuild her feeling and qualified P11.
FULL FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
Xavi Vierge – P10: 1’38.970
“It’s been a solid day. Right from the start I had a good feeling with the bike and my lap times were decent, but unfortunately – as we’ve seen all year – the others were quicker, so all we can do is keep working. We tried a small change for the afternoon and found that we improved our pace a little on the used tyre, which I’m pleased with. Now we’ll analyse the data to see if we can find a couple of tenths for tomorrow, because that will be important if we want to put together a good qualifying.”
Andrea Locatelli – P20: 1’39.978
“It’s been a difficult start to the weekend. We’re trying to improve every session, and I felt slightly better in FP2 than in the morning, but honestly I’m not really happy with how today went – the feeling isn’t quite there yet. We need to be a little more precise with a few things, especially as we lost a lot of time in FP2 dealing with a problem. Still, I want to look at today in a positive way: we’ll keep working hard to prepare for tomorrow and see what we can do to make a step forward.”
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