Portimão Podium Delight for Locatelli and Pata Maxus Yamaha
Andrea Locatelli and Pata Maxus Yamaha celebrated their first podium of the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship season in style at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve today.
Since the opening round in Australia, “Loka” has quietly and consistently put in the work to be able to fight at the front of the WorldSBK field. With competition fiercer than ever, the 28-year-old Italian did exactly what he needed to do to give himself the best shot at the podium – and deliver when it counts.
A superb Superpole session this morning netted a time just a tenth of a second away from a front row start, and as the lights went out for Race 1, Locatelli made a lightning start from fourth on the grid to follow Nicolò Bulega into the first corner. As the race developed, the #55 controlled the final podium position, maintaining a superb pace to keep the chasing riders behind with robotic consistency, even as the grip reduced, and crossed the line in third place at the chequered flag.
For Jason O’Halloran, his first 20-lap race was another chance to get to grips with the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK. The Australian completed the full race distance and step-by-step looks forward to improving tomorrow as his speed and knowledge with the Pirelli tyres and WorldSBK set-up grows.
Sunday starts with a 10-minute Warm Up session before the all-out, 10-lap sprint Superpole Race at 11:00 WEST – daylight savings time – followed by the final WorldSBK feature of the weekend: Race 2 at 14:00.
FULL SUPERPOLE RESULTS
FULL RACE ONE RESULTS
Andrea Locatelli – SP: P4 / Race 1: P3
“I am really happy honestly, we have been working well from yesterday and made a good base set up with my R1. I struggled a bit with the feeling on the front during the race and we need to work on this point to improve tomorrow to try to close the gap. In any case, I am proud that I never lost focus and I was in control of every situation, so I think what we did today is the confirmation of our work. It’s only the second round, the championship is quite long – we have many races at different tracks, so I want to believe in myself until the end to have more chances to be on the podium again and maybe we can get the first victory. We will keep working, we have two possibilities tomorrow so let’s try again.”
Jason O’Halloran – SP: P21 / Race 1: P17
“First 20-lap race done, just still finding my feet with everything but thanks to all the team – they’ve been working really hard yesterday and today to make me more comfortable on the bike. Obviously still not easy trying to adapt to the WorldSBK, especially around Portimão Circuit because it’s quite a technical track. Good to get 20 laps under my belt, I just wanted to keep it on two wheels and bring it home, and look forward to improving tomorrow.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:
“After the disappointment of JR’s Phillip Island injury, but the really encouraging performances delivered by Andrea there – to capitalise with a podium here in Portimão feels like a win! Since the first laps of FP1, Loka and the team have done an extremely focused, diligent job and they extracted the maximum potential this afternoon in Race 1. There may be some small tweaks we can do to improve Loka’s front feeling going into the Superpole Race tomorrow, but honestly speaking – everyone at Pata Maxus Yamaha is delighted with the podium today and proud to see the team and all our partners represented at the front of the field.”
