Starting from the last row of the grid was “sans problème” for Pata Maxus Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli, after a crash on his first timed lap of qualifying saw him severely disadvantaged for Race 1 at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, for Round 9 of the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship in France today.
The high-speed crash in this morning’s Superpole meant the 28-year-old Italian lost the opportunity to start on the front row, as his pace on Friday and in Free Practice 3 had potentially promised.
Luckily, Locatelli escaped without serious injury and made an incredible start to recover a monumental 16 positions on the opening lap of Race 1 alone. A late crash from Sam Lowes meant he was able to capitalise on a fifth-place finish and stay in the fight for third in the championship.
Jonathan Rea also had a very strong start to the weekend, running in the top six in FP3 with growing confidence on board his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK. A team miscalculation in Superpole meant he missed the chance to improve his lap time at the end of the session, and started Race 1 from P13, but it was a crash from Yari Montella that robbed Rea of the opportunity to convert his pace to a strong result when the rookie took both him and Andrea Iannone out of contention at Turn 13 on Lap 1.
With promising pace for both riders, Pata Maxus Yamaha will be back for Sunday and the conclusion of the French Round with two further WorldSBK races – the Superpole Race at 11:00 CEST where Locatelli and Rea will fight to improve their grid position before Race 2 at the later time of 15:30.
Andrea Locatelli – SP: P22 / Race 1: P5
“I never expected to finish in the top five today! Unfortunately, in Superpole I crashed on the first flying lap in Turn 3 – I was lucky because I am in one piece physically but it was a big crash and my R1 was destroyed – sorry to Yamaha and the team for this! I did my best in the race, some riders in front crashed, but my rhythm was there and I tried to recover as soon as possible. After missing qualifying it is also quite difficult to come back again on the bike, but I am quite happy! A strong result again, P5! Let’s see tomorrow, we have only 10 laps in the Superpole Race and I will do my best to see if it is possible to finish in the top nine to start more forward on the grid for Race 2. It will not be easy, but let’s try to do it!”
Jonathan Rea – SP: P13 / Race 1: DNF
“I’m gutted about today because in all honesty, from yesterday and this morning, I felt really good with my R1 – more than even the results showed. We made a bit of a team mistake in Superpole with timing and I started from P13, but made a great start. Took great track position in T1 and T2, then I was P7 or P8 when I went into T13 behind Iannone and Montella came up the inside and crashed into both of us and ended my race. It was frustrating because my bike was on top of everybody’s and I lost time to get it free. We did a quick pit stop just to check everything before doing few laps just to find a rhythm for Sunday because my race was all but over. That was as much as we could salvage, there was no points to grab, so save some energy and now focus on tomorrow to make another good start. Thanks to the guys, it’s been a journey and I felt like I started riding pretty solid from yesterday, getting close to finding our full potential again – and it was exciting! Hopefully we can exploit that tomorrow, target the top nine to improve our grid position for the long race and see what happens.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“We had one of the team’s most promising, if not the best, Friday of the season so far with Loka consistently in the top three and Jonathan getting straight up to speed after a long break, in the top six. Unfortunately, Friday became meaningless after a really tough qualifying session. Everybody pushes to the limit in Superpole and Loka lost the front in the super-fast Turn 3 – luckily, he escaped without serious injury but his race bike was beyond repair. JR’s crew made a miscalculation for his final time attack and we missed the opportunity to start on the second or third row. Qualifying often makes the race, but on this occasion, Loka’s determination on Lap 1 – with a little bit of luck also handed to him with the multiple-rider crash up at Turn 13 – and some great passes saw him settle into sixth place and elevated to fifth following Sam Lowes’ crash later in the race. We didn’t expect that kind of result after Superpole, but we’ll happily take it. The key will be to improve Loka’s R1 and his feeling just a bit more so that he can try to get into the top nine in the 10-lap Superpole Race tomorrow for Race 2. JR was taken out by Montella unfortunately, which destroyed his race. After a quick check of the bike, he did some laps just to take a reference and he’ll be ready to go tomorrow when hopefully we’ll see this recent run of misfortune turn into something positive.”
Posted on September 6, 2025 by Michael Le Pard
