Andrea Locatelli came through from 15th on the grid to a fighting fifth-place finish in Race 2 at Phillip Island, concluding Round 1 of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship in Australia, today. The strong result from the rain-soaked final feature of the weekend was a silver lining in a difficult opening round for Yamaha’s Official WorldSBK Team.
A disappointing 14th-place finish in the dry Superpole Race this morning was not enough for the team’s #55 rider to improve his grid position for Race 2, but he was up to eighth on the opening lap and subsequently joined the fight in the top six. Keeping a solid pace, the Italian made sure to bring his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK home in the best possible position, as others succumbed to the tricky conditions – making sure to keep a strong pace in the final stages of the race against a chasing Danilo Petrucci.
Xavi Vierge had a second day to forget, but remained positive after demonstrating impressive performance and maturity during his debut weekend for Pata Maxus Yamaha. A technical problem before the start of the Superpole Race meant he was forced to watch the 10-Lap sprint from the pit box, unable to take advantage of his clear pace in dry conditions. Later, when finding his feet and moving forward in the wet conditions of Race 2, the #97 crashed out of contention on Lap 13.
After the long flight back to Europe, Pata Maxus Yamaha will complete a two-day test at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve from 9-10 March, where no stone will be left unturned in preparation for the second round of the championship at Portimão at the end of the month.
FULL RACE 2 RESULTS
Andrea Locatelli – SPRC: P14 / Race 2: P5
“It was not an easy weekend for us for sure. The positions that we got, let me say are not enough because we know that we can do a lot more. We came here with the focus to try to be faster and faster, but for some reasons we were not able to do it. We need to keep working hard, but I want to be positive – today, the challenges were different and I tried to do my best. I gave all the effort from the beginning of the weekend, but we didn’t have enough confidence or speed. Fortunately, today in the wet, at least I was able to improve to fifth place. This is what we got from this weekend, for sure we lost many points, but the championship is not finished – it’s only the first race and I want to stay positive. Now, we have Portimão where we were on the podium last year and then we won in Assen – so we need to keep looking forward, push hard and get back to our usual level.”
Xavi Vierge – SPRC: DNS / Race 2: DNF
“So, even if it’s been so difficult, we need to take the positives – I think the job we did in preparing for the race weekend has been good, we were fast, we found a good set-up for me to exploit the strongest points of my riding style and also of the R1. Unfortunately, in the races, we didn’t get the results that we expected, but as I say – we try to take the positives. Also, I had a massive 250km/h crash yesterday and physically, I’m very good – so we need to be super happy with that! In Race 2, I tried to find confidence in the wet, but I never had a good feeling on the rear. When I overtook a few riders, I tried to go forward because I had a good pace and unfortunately, I lost the rear on the exit of Turn 2, so I’m sorry to the team for this mistake. Luckily very soon we are back on the bike for two days testing at Portimão and I hope to recover the good feelings and to believe strongly that we go in the right direction again.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“Phillip Island in 2025 was a really challenging event, but unfortunately this year’s has been even more so! Xavi has found such a good rhythm and feeling with the R1 WorldSBK already, so we had high hopes going into the races – following a strong qualifying – that he would be able to capitalise on that potential. The huge Race 1 accident was extremely unfortunate – and then, a technical issue with the freshly-rebuilt bike cost him the chance to compete in the Superpole Race today. A lack of rear grip and the crash this afternoon in the rain only rounded-off a really unlucky first event, but looking past all of that – what we’ve seen so far gives us a lot of hope for the future with Pata Maxus Yamaha. He’s physically fine despite the two accidents and we’re looking forward to him showing what we all believe he’ll be capable of.
“Loka’s known the R1 for many years now and has always been fast wherever we go, but in reality this was his most difficult event since joining the team in 2021. A positive was that he pushed really hard in the early laps of the wet Race 2 to go from 15th on the grid all the way up to fifth position, which showed that his determination hasn’t been dampened at all. Overall, not at all what we hoped for this weekend at Phillip Island. Clearly there are many frustrations, because the results don’t truly reflect the capabilities of the R1 WorldSBK, as we have been more competitive here in previous years. Together with Yamaha, we need to ensure that the issues faced here are solved and that we again maximise our potential, ahead of the European campaign which kicks off with the Portimao test in March.”
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