Andrea Locatelli righted the ship after a P15 finish in Day 1, improving to P4 in Day 2 at a damp Portimao circuit, only finishing behind Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team). Similar to Day 1, rain played a factor, delaying riders from emerging from their garages, and returning in the afternoon, limiting Locatelli and others to a half-day of testing as riders prepare for the start of the 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship.

A RAINY DAY 2: Locatelli was limited to just a half day however made the most of his time on-track

Following Portimao’s preseason test Day 2, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) spoke on his takeaways from their findings from their half-day of testing on Day 2 at the Portuguese circuit. Rainy conditions limited testing capabilities at Portimao’s Day 2, however #55 came in fourth fastest with a 1’43.131s lap, only .070 behind Alvaro Bautista in P3.

“It was strange, you can see my bike is still a little bit wet from the rain that’s still falling, so day two we just focused on trying a few things, riding the bike and understanding if we had fixed some of the things we tried in Jerez so more or less we are happy.” said Locatelli

LIMITED WINTER TESTING: Despite restrictive weather, ‘Loka’ is feeling positive for Phillip Island

Like in Jerez a week prior, the weather hampered on-track conditions and limited teams’ ability to troubleshoot their bikes this preseason. ‘Loka’ lamented this fact but stated that with the testing time available in Australia ahead of that weekend’s races, he and his Pata Maxus Yamaha team will be ready to go.

“The conditions this winter have been difficult, meaning we couldn’t ride much, but the feeling is not too bad, I’m looking forward to being ready for Phillip Island,” said Locatelli “I want to be positive because we had an impressive couple of races there, so I think we just need to ride a couple of laps there beforehand.”

PHILLIP ISLAND PROGNOSIS: Fine tuning on the menu for Locatelli and optimistic for his race results

The team’s testing up to this point have been largely dedicated to fine-tuning their bike and looking ahead to Phillip Island’s testing, his team hopes of replicating the strong star to the season he enjoyed in 2024’s Australian Round in which he enjoyed two podiums in three races.

Looking ahead to the Official Test at Phillip Island, Locatelli said: “Now we have a couple of weeks to understand what we’ve learned from Jerez and Portimao. We don’t have a million things to try fortunately so we will just try to go as fast as possible. Every year can be different but for sure I’m strong on that track.”

Will Locatelli be able to replicate his 2024 explosive start to the season once again? Stay tuned for this and more with the WorldSBK VideoPass!