It was a disappointing day for Andrea Locatelli and Pata Maxus Yamaha as the home hero’s podium-fighting potential went unrewarded in WorldSBK Race 1 at Cremona Circuit today.
Eager to carry momentum from his premier class race victory in Assen, “Loka” started the day as he meant to continue, flying to the second-fastest lap time in Free Practice 3.
A strong initial lap in Superpole saw Locatelli competing for the first three rows after the first runs, but several challenges in the second run involving traffic and yellow flags meant he was not able to improve his time leaving him eighth on the grid. The Italian was later penalised with a three-place grid penalty resulting in a fourth row start for the first feature race of the weekend.
Despite this, the 28-year-old from Bergamo put his head down in an attempt to make progress through the field and achieve a positive result, but his luck went from bad to worse as he fell from contention with a mistake at Turn 2 on the second lap. He re-joined to complete the full race distance at a strong pace, and vowed to make amends tomorrow.
For Jonathan Rea, it was also a tough day at the office as he returned from injury to race for the first time in 2025. The six-time WorldSBK Champion “toughed it out” to gain valuable data and establish some race fitness, with a strong start and good early pace to build on.
A new day on Sunday starts with a 10-minute Warm Up session for WorldSBK before the first chance for redemption in the Superpole Race at 11:00 CEST, and full-length Race 2 at 14:00.
FULL SUPERPOLE RESULTS
FULL RACE ONE RESULTS
Andrea Locatelli – SP: P8 / Race 1: P18
“Bad luck in the end – a difficult day and things did not work out well for us. We tried to maximise our qualifying, the potential was at least Row 2, but we were a bit unlucky with the yellow flag and then also the penalty, and so it was a big shame to start P11. In the race, I don’t know what happened but I made a small mistake and lost the front in Turn 2 – then I re-joined and completed the race distance because the damage was not too bad. We took some data and I had some feeling with the bike to give feedback, and now I’m looking forward to trying again tomorrow. I’m sorry to the team and also Pata at their home race, but we will try to make a step forward in the Superpole Race and also focus on a good result in Race 2.”
Jonathan Rea – SP: P17 / Race 1: P19
“It was nice to line up again and get that feeling, and after a really good start from my grid position I was maintaining a good pace – until I just started really struggling to stop the bike and used a lot of physical energy. I’m honestly just not ready to ride at that level of intensity and it was a bit of a shock to the system. There were a couple of areas where I made mistakes and was in the gravel twice, so I just had to regroup and ride at a slower pace to finish the race, as frustrating as that was. A clear area to improve for tomorrow, I am sure the engineers can compare and understand my problems to try and help me – but aside from the negatives, it was nice to be back and start my season because today is like Day 1! There’s a lot of good data, and I needed to stay out and do the laps physically to prepare because there’s no fitness like bike fitness.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“Saturday at Cremona has brought us down to earth with a bump compared to Sunday at Assen, but that’s the nature of motorsport! Loka’s day started well with P2 in FP3, but unfortunately, a combination of bad track positioning and subsequent grid penalty saw him start P11 for Race 1. At this extremely tight and twisty Cremona Circuit, it was always going to be an uphill battle from there, and Loka unfortunately made his first mistake of the season and crashed. But he showed afterwards that his pace was at least good enough to be in the battle for fourth and very good points. These things happen, we’ll take the positives and work towards a much stronger day tomorrow. For JR, it’s been a really tough comeback – his physical condition after three months off the bike means that he’s not yet ready to fully exploit his own talent, but I would like to thank him for toughing it out and bringing his R1 home. A strong start and good pace shown in the early laps demonstrates just how badly Jonathan wants to return to the top level, and that clearly he’ll be back there soon.”
