Positive Estoril Weekend for Pata Maxus Yamaha with Locatelli and Rea in the Top Five Fight

Two more hard-fought top five results keep Pata Maxus Yamaha and Andrea Locatelli’s hopes of securing the bronze medal in the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship alive after the final day at Circuito Estoril, while teammate Jonathan Rea re-joined the battle at the front.

Sunday’s 10-Lap Superpole Race this morning was another thrilling opportunity for the two Official Yamaha R1 WorldSBK riders to mount a challenge for the podium, as the close group vying for P3 once again went wheel-to-wheel when the lights went out.

Rea got the better start to run third by Lap 2, before Alvaro Bautista came through and later, Locatelli with stronger pace. The #55 and #65 Pata Maxus Yamaha riders stayed close together in fourth and fifth respectively until Lap 7 when Rea unfortunately crashed out of contention at Turn 7, leaving Locatelli to defend from Alex Lowes and Andrea Iannone to secure P4 at the line.

Race 2 was trickier this afternoon – Rea recovered quickly from P11 on the grid to climb to sixth position by the end of Lap 4, while Locatelli had another “go” at third, getting the better of Bautista in the opening laps. As the race developed, both riders struggled with tyre degradation to a greater degree than in Race 1 yesterday, hampering their ability to take the fight to the front.

Locatelli held on to cross the line in fifth, while Rea brought his bike home safely in ninth place.

The final round of the season begins next week in Jerez, where the competition for third in the championship will come to a head for Locatelli and Pata Maxus Yamaha – while the team hopes to help Rea finish the last weekend of his WorldSBK career as a full-time rider on a high.

FULL SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS

FULL RACE 2 RESULTS

Andrea Locatelli – SPRC: P4 / Race 2: P5

“In the end, we finished with the top five again this afternoon in Race 2 and we had a strong fourth place in the Superpole Race. We were in a group with really good fighting for the podium until the last lap this morning – fighting there is never easy but it was positive and good fun! Race 2 was honestly a bit disappointing, even if P5 was not too bad – with the front tyre it was a struggle from the middle of the race until the end – we destroyed the right side of the tyre which was not the case in Race 1, this can happen sometimes when we try to do the maximum of what we can against our competitors but we always keep fighting until the end. This was the overall result we could do, I tried to do my best during ever session – but, let’s keep working! We have the last round of the season in Jerez next week, so we will try to keep this feeling and confidence with the R1 to fight again. We gained a lot of points, which was another positive point for us in general. During the last couple of rounds it was not so easy, but we keep working and look forward to Jerez!”

Jonathan Rea – SPRC: DNF / Race 2: P9

“Frustrated with the Superpole race to be honest! In the beginning I was able to get track position up into third place and when Loka came past, I was mindful of his aspirations for third in the championship so I didn’t want to get too involved and it looked like he had the pace to go with Alvaro and beyond. After a few laps though he wasn’t making progress, so I really thought “ok, I need to mount a challenge”. I felt really good with my R1 and we were really strong in Sectors 2 and 3, and I thought if we could be there in the last lap, it could be my chance at the podium. But I went down in Turn 7, just a few degrees over the limit than the previous lap, and that’s the margins we’re racing with. Frustrating for both me and the guys as well, because they’ve put together a good weekend. Then, for the long race, we made a small change to find a little bit more grip but I really struggled with rear traction the whole race and lost a lot more ground with the tyre degradation than yesterday in particular. It was better to bring the bike home, maybe we took the wrong direction with the set-up changes, but you have to look at these things to improve and we’ll learn from that. We take a good feeling to Jerez, knowing that we can fight inside the top five and potentially cap off the year strongly. I want to thank my team for giving everything until the end, especially my Crew Chief Uri, because he’s worked tirelessly to give me a bike that suits my style. Big thanks to everyone at Yamaha and in the team for continuing to push.”

Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:

“We saw a strong performance from Pata Maxus Yamaha’s riders here this weekend in Estoril, with both the guys fighting hard to get into the podium battle. Race 1 and the Superpole Race, despite JR’s crash in the 10-Lap sprint, unfortunately showed stronger potential than Race 2 – where we had hoped to take a step and target the podium. Unfortunately, both the riders suffered from front tyre degradation and a lack of front grip from the start, which was in fact a stronger point of our package yesterday. That was unexpected and a little bit disappointing! However, with Loka’s 4-4-5 results, we go to Jerez fourth in the championship, only eight points away and with the clear opportunity to fight for the bronze medal still on the table. On JR’s side, now that he’s physically recovered, he’s shown again that retirement hasn’t subdued any of his spirit or desire to do well. Jerez is a track that the R1 enjoys, so we will be looking to maximise the overall team performance at the final round of the season.”