Pata Maxus Yamaha, Xavi Vierge and Andrea Locatelli began work in earnest for Round 7 of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship at Misano World Circuit in Italy today, welcomed by sunny, summer weather on the Adriatic Coast.
One of the busiest rounds of the season awaits, as Italian fans flock to Misano for WorldSBK this weekend – with track action underway during Free Practice 1 and 2 on Friday.
Pata Maxus Yamaha, alongside Yamaha Motor Europe’s engineers, started with a solid base for both riders following a two-day performance test at the same venue last month in similar conditions. The goal today was to build on the progress made and work on fine-tuning ahead of this weekend’s main points-paying races on Saturday and Sunday.
Vierge ended the day happy with the positive feeling on his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK and looking to make a step tomorrow to be in a position to qualify strongly, while Locatelli was missing a little bit the strong feeling he found particularly on Friday in Aragon last time out. After analysing the data collected from the two 45-minute Free Practice sessions, the aim will be to give the riders further confidence in tomorrow’s 21-Lap Race 1 feature.
The FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship returned to competition today, with Beatriz Neila re-joining the fight at the front of the field to qualify third in Superpole for Ampito Crescent Yamaha – while teammate Chloe Jones (Monster Energy Crescent Yamaha) will start from the third row.
Tomorrow starts with a short Warm Up for WorldWCR at 9:00 CEST and Race 1 at 12:00, while WorldSBK have one final Free Practice 3 with 20 minutes of track time to work on settings before the usual frenetic Superpole qualifying at 11:15 and Race 1 at the end of the day at 15:30.
FULL FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
Xavi Vierge: P10 – 1’33.431
“It has been the best Friday so far for a long time, so this is always good to start the weekend with positive feelings. Of course, we are still missing a little bit but the test that we already did some weeks ago helps a lot to start already with a set-up that I know for this circuit and with some of the preparation work done so we can focus on the fine tuning. The feeling on the R1 is quite good and it’s clear where we need to improve for tomorrow. As always, we will try to focus on the small details – everything is quite tight, so it will be super important to make a good qualifying.”
Andrea Locatelli: P15 – 1’33.609
“Day One in Misano and honestly the feeling was a bit strange from this morning – especially in FP1. We tried to improve during FP2 and we are still working hard to understand why the feeling is not really good – because in Aragon it was better and I was happy with the set-up in general. We have the rest of today and overnight working hard and looking for a solution to improve, and let’s see what we can do for tomorrow. I will try to give 100% like always.”
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