Pata Maxus Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli kept a cool head in high temperature track conditions to bring home a strong result from Race 1 at Balaton Park Circuit, for Round 7 of the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship in Hungary today.
Qualifying on the front row of the grid in a frenetic Superpole this morning with the third-fastest lap time amid a red-flagged session, the #55 rider launched an attack for the race lead immediately – getting in front of Toprak Razgatlioglu until the race was red-flagged due to a large incident further down the field at Turn 2.
In the restart, Locatelli held second position defending from Sam Lowes in the opening laps – then later came under attack from Nicolo Bulega and Alvaro Bautista. ‘Loka’ rode strongly and gave his absolute best to bring his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK home in fourth position behind the podium trio.
Teammate Jonathan Rea started further back in P10, but made immediate progress to run in fifth at the restart – mirroring his incredible race starts and fighting spirit seen at the previous rounds this season. Rea engaged in a thrilling battle for seventh place until he unfortunately lost the front into Turn 1 on Lap 15 – while he was able to remount and re-join initially, a second crash at Turn 4 ended his Saturday challenge.
Both Pata Maxus Yamaha riders turn their attention to Sunday’s two races and potential inclement stormy weather expected in Hungary – taking the positives and working on further refinements to their race machines depending on the conditions. Warm Up will take place at the revised time of 8:45 CEST before Superpole Race at 11:00 and Race 2 at 14:00.
FULL SUPERPOLE RESULTS
FULL RACE 1 RESULTS
Andrea Locatelli – SP: P3 / Race 1: P4
“I think we improved a lot in respect to Day 1, but it was the first time on this track and we needed to put all the things together. Last night we worked really well to prepare my R1, so from FP3 we made a good step forward on lap time. I was able to do a good job also in Superpole to make P3 to start on the front row – this track is tricky, so it was important to start as much in front as possible. In general, it was a good race but I wanted more – we were a bit too far from the podium so we need to work more on the rear grip to stay closer to the front, especially with the high temperature on the ground. We will see what we can do tomorrow – today was positive and we are looking forward to trying again tomorrow to challenge for the podium.”
Jonathan Rea – SP: P10 / Race 1: DNF
“I made a great start in Race 1, but felt pretty vulnerable at the end of the straight – a few times people were coming alongside me or blocking me a bit and disturbing my rhythm, so I wasn’t riding amazingly well in the first five, six laps, but when I found some rhythm I was able to get going and set my personal best lap times closer to what was the end of my race. I had a bit of chatter going into T1, and I don’t know, carrying a little bit more lean angle maybe and down I went. I tried to remount and had another crash in Turn 4, the data doesn’t tell us much and it was quite a strange crash. Frustrated because at one point in the race I was starting the enjoy the scrap! Feeling ok and let’s see what tomorrow brings – reset and forget – because the weather looks like it might change. We might have a fully-wet day – I haven’t ridden the R1 too much in the wet but when I have we’ve been fast, so I will try get stuck in.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“Andrea set himself up well for this afternoon’s race with his best qualifying of the year so far, riding to his and the R1’s maximum potential. The race itself delivered a positive result and another very strong performance in P4, but once again we are not fully satisfied with ‘best of the rest’ status behind Toprak and the two factory Ducatis. We were actually more competitive in cooler temperatures this morning and a lot closer to the podium pace, but with the heat this afternoon – which is of course the same for everyone – the loss of grip seemed to affect us more than the best competitors. That said, really good job Andrea, good job team and another strong performance to build on tomorrow. JR had taken another step forward this morning but unfortunately, it’s not shown clearly on the timesheets or the race result today. He was involved in a fierce battle for P7 and to bring it home there would have been nice, but it wasn’t meant to be. The positive is that he is uninjured and that there are some encouraging signs that we’re starting to see the real Jonathan Rea again out on the track.”
Posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2025 by Michael Le Pard
