Fighting Fifth Place for Locatelli at Home in Misano WorldSBK Race 1
Pata Maxus Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli put in a fine effort to fight for the podium in Race 1 at Misano World Circuit, during Round 6 of the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship in Italy today.
The hottest track temperatures of the weekend so far made conditions exceptionally challenging for the WorldSBK premier class this afternoon on the Adriatic Coast, but Locatelli did everything he could to stay with the podium fight until the end of 21 scintillating laps.
From a P7 grid start, the #55 Italian rider made exceptional progress to run in fourth position at the beginning of the race – then fifth as Danilo Petrucci came through on Lap 3. Settling into a race rhythm, “Loka” closed the gap in the second half of the race – not letting both Petrucci and Alex Lowes out of his sights – but was just unable to mount a final challenge for the third podium place at the end.
Jonathan Rea started Race 1 on the back foot following a difficult Superpole session where he wasn’t able to improve on his second flying lap, but the #65 rider gritted his teeth and got to work. In the melee of Lap 1, he lost track position but managed to work his way through to P14 and later improve to P12. Rea remains positive to take a step with his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK set-up to progress again tomorrow.
Another scorching day on track awaits in Misano on Sunday, starting with a short Warm Up at 9:00 CEST, then Superpole Race at 11:00 and Race 2 at 14:00.
FULL SUPERPOLE RESULTS
FULL RACE 1 RESULTS
Andrea Locatelli – SP: P8 / Race 1: P5
“I’m quite happy with the performance today – we made a good start at the beginning to P4, then I was struggling a bit during the race especially with the rear grip on the left side. This didn’t help me to stay with the group to fight for the podium, but towards the end of the race I was feeling ok and tried to close the gap but it was still difficult. Basically, I think we have a good base set-up, we can work a bit for tomorrow and if we can find a bit more on the bike, maybe we can fight for the podium. This would be great, especially here in Misano! I don’t stop believing – good effort from everyone and a good job from all the guys because we made a step from yesterday. Qualifying maybe not a perfect lap and P7, but overall I feel good and I am quite confident. Let’s try to do a good Superpole Race tomorrow to start more in front and then we’ll enjoy again in Race 2!”
Jonathan Rea – SP: P16 / Race 1: P12
“I didn’t help my chances today with a tough qualifying. I wasn’t able to improve much on my second tyre which meant we started P16. I got a really good start but was vulnerable going down towards Quercia where Iannone was able to pass me and push me a little bit wide and then two other riders passed. I lost quite a bit of track position from the first lap and lost touch with the group. Then settled into a bit of a rhythm and was riding most of the race with Vierge, then later Redding. Struggled quite a lot with stopping towards the apex of the corner and just being in the right position to open the throttle, I feel like the bike it is understeering a little bit – we need to fix that for tomorrow. It’s important that I got 21 laps under our belt again, after a very tough Friday not being able to put everything together. Now we can calmly look through a lot of data and make a good step forward. I’ll need another good start tomorrow and the target is to improve from where we were today, try and reduce the gap to the front and try to be in the mix.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“A really strong performance by Andrea this afternoon – frustratingly close to the podium! Compared to the rest of this weekend, he missed some rear grip especially on the left side and it made it tough to get right on to the back wheels of Alex and Danilo. Nonetheless, to maximise the performance of the bike and stay so consistent and mistake-free over 21 laps in such incredibly high temperatures was a ‘job well done’ and gives us a platform to improve further and challenge for the podium again tomorrow. For JR, compared to the test the whole weekend has been difficult and today, qualifying was challenging and the race equally so. Physically he is in good shape now, of course he is missing a lot of racing kilometres compared to the other top guys – but hopefully, given the conditions are going to be very similar tomorrow, the data from today will help Uri and the team take a step forward.”
