Xavi Vierge and Pata Maxus Yamaha enjoyed an encouraging start to Round 9 of the FIM Superbike World Championship at the Circuit de Nevers, Magny-Cours, setting the fourth fastest time on Friday.
Action resumed after the summer break with soaring temperatures greeting the paddock as the French round got underway. The Pata Maxus Yamaha riders took to the track in Free Practice 1 to kickstart the final four rounds of the 2026 season.
After a strong end to the Donington Park round back in July, Xavi Vierge picked up where he left off and improved lap-after-lap during the morning session to set the fourth-fastest time, while team-mate Andrea Locatelli worked on finding the right feeling to build on as the weekend progresses.
In Free Practice 2, with the rising track temperatures making it harder to improve the lap times across the field, the #97 showed his potential once again, ending the session in sixth fastest, to complete the day fourth on the combined timesheet. On the other side of the box, Locatelli saw his running interrupted by a technical issue early in the session, and while he was able to return to the track for one lap towards the end he only completed five flying laps during FP2.
Saturday brings a busy day of action, with FP3 at 10:20 CEST, Superpole at 11:15 and Race 1 at 15:30.
FULL FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
Xavi Vierge, P4 – 1’36.035
“I’m happy to recover the feeling I’d been building before the break, and I think we started working in a good direction today. Magny-Cours is one of the stronger tracks for us, but as we’re seeing everywhere this year, everyone is going much faster than last season – the pace I did today would have been good enough run with the podium guys last year, but not this year. We know we’re working hard and the target is to be inside the top five, and I think we’re on our way. The most important goal for tomorrow is a good qualifying – with our package it’s really important to start as far forward as possible, in the first two or three rows. That’s the aim for tomorrow, and then we’ll see.”
Andrea Locatelli, P20 – 1’37.526
“It wasn’t an easy day for us. After the summer break, we jumped back on the bike trying to build confidence and pushing hard, but unfortunately, we had a technical problem this afternoon in FP2, so we couldn’t do any long runs. It’s a bit of a shame, because on a Friday it’s important to complete plenty of laps to get the feeling back with the bike. But I know the bike and I know what its potential is. So we keep looking to tomorrow: we’ll try to do our best from FP3, build a base from there, put together a good qualifying and then fight again. We’ll keep learning and improving.”
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