Pata Maxus Yamaha’s Xavi Vierge delivered two strong rides on Sunday at the Circuit de Nevers, Magny-Cours, taking P8 in Race 2 and P9 in the Superpole Race in the French Round of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship. The team now travels straight to Cremona in Italy for an important development test.
The #97 continued to progress across Sunday’s two races. In the morning’s 10-lap Superpole Race, Vierge battled within the same group as team-mate Andrea Locatelli to cross the line in P9, after an aggressive last lap battle. Come Race 2, he felt increasingly confident with the potential of his R1 WorldSBK, working his way through to P8 to round off a weekend of solid points-scoring rides.
On the other side of the box, it was a more difficult Sunday for Locatelli. The hard work of the Italian and his crew paid off in the Superpole Race, where he came home inside the top 10 but missed out by 0.02s on the crucial ninth place needed to secure a row three start in Race 2. “Loka” made a strong start in the feature race, but his afternoon was undone in the opening laps when contact with another rider brought him down and forced his retirement – denying him the chance to bank valuable race data.
Pata Maxus Yamaha now head straight to Cremona Circuit for an important test day this Thursday, where Yamaha will bring new developments to try, ahead of the next round at the same venue from 25-27 September.
FULL SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS
FULL RACE 2 RESULTS
Xavi Vierge – SPRC: P9 / Race 2: P8
“Once again, I think we put together some solid races. We worked really well throughout the weekend, always looking for small gains, and in Race 2 the bike felt the best it had all weekend – which is exactly what we’re aiming for. There’s still a gap to the riders at the front, but we have to focus on ourselves, and I think we did a good job: two races inside the Top 9 is a positive to take. Next week we have an important test day in Cremona, and hopefully the weather is kind so we can make the most of it and prepare well for the next round.”
Andrea Locatelli – SPRC: P10 / Race 2: DNF
“It was a challenging weekend – we struggled a bit on Friday and it was hard to find the right feeling. But in qualifying yesterday I think we did a good job, and we tried to carry that into Race 1, working in every session to keep improving. Today’s race was tough – at Turn 3 I lost a lot of ground after being hit by another rider, and as I was trying to recover, a second rider made contact and unfortunately put me on the floor. It’s a shame, because it meant we couldn’t finish the race or gather the data we wanted – but that’s racing, and we have to look forward. Now we head to the Cremona test, where we’ll keep working hard to improve.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“The team and the riders gave their very best all weekend here at Magny-Cours. Xavi kept the bike inside the top 10 in all three races and, while these aren’t the results Yamaha or the team are ultimately aiming for, in the current situation they are genuinely strong performances – with his best feeling on the bike coming in the final race. That shows the team did a good job, and with just a little more performance, a top-six finish was well within reach. Andrea made a strong recovery on Saturday after a tough Friday and had the best version of the bike underneath him in Race 2, but an unusually difficult start saw him pushed off track in the first couple of corners and drop to the back of the field. As he fought back through the pack, he was involved in a coming-together with another rider and had a heavy crash – fortunately, he is completely fine. Cremona is an important test on Thursday, where Yamaha will bring some new developments for us to try, with an eye on taking the first steps towards major improvements in our performance for the 2027 season.”
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