Pata Maxus Yamaha, Xavi Vierge and Andrea Locatelli opened Round 8 of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship under unusually hot and sunny skies at Donington Park.
One of the most popular rounds on the WorldSBK calendar – famous for the passion of its British fans at the same venue where the series began in 1988 – got underway this morning with the heat very much the talking point.
Pata Maxus Yamaha, working alongside Yamaha Motor Europe’s engineers, focused on refining the base setup of the R1 WorldSBK with Saturday and Sunday’s races firmly in mind. Xavi Vierge had a positive day, focused on making laps and understanding where he can be faster for tomorrow. Teammate Andrea Locatelli had a more challenging day despite desire to carry confidence from his podium at Suzuka last weekend, but with the field tightly packed at this circuit, he and his crew will work hard to recover the feeling ahead of tomorrow.
The FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship also returned to action with extra motivation for Chloe Jones (Monster Energy Crescent Yamaha) competing at her home round. Beatriz Neila delivered a fantastic performance to claim second position in Superpole for Ampito Crescent Yamaha, while Chloe unfortunately crashed but was classified seventh. With no serious injuries reported, she will be reviewed before tomorrow’s Warm Up.
With slightly cooler temperatures expected on Saturday, action gets underway with WorldWCR Warm Up at 09:00 BST and Race 1 at 13:00. WorldSBK follows with FP3 at 09:40, Superpole at 11:15 and Race 1 at 15:30.
Xavi Vierge, P14 – 1’26.432
“Positive day – another new circuit for me with the R1, so the most important thing is to make laps and understand how to go faster. During the day we tried a lot of things and improved quite a lot. Our potential is better than the lap time we showed today, which means we have room to improve. It’s super tight here, so tomorrow it will be so important to be accurate and not make mistakes, because a few tenths can make all the difference. Overall we have done a great job with the team – we know where we can improve and recover the good feeling.”
Andrea Locatelli, P18 – 1’26.761
“A difficult day – I’ve been struggling to find a good feeling. We have to work hard tonight to understand where the problem is and what we can fix. The gap between riders here is not so big, which means there is everything to play for tomorrow. I keep the motivation to push hard and find a better feeling with the bike – let’s see what we can do.”
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