Yamaha WorldSBK riders looking for Portimao rebound after “difficult” opener

Yamaha’s two factory WorldSBK riders are both aiming to rebound in Portimao after difficult weekends, one way or another, in Australia last month.

Both Andrea Locatelli and Xavi Vierge endured tough weekends in Australia. Locatelli was unable to finish inside the top-10 in either dry race, but salvaged a top-five in the wet in Race 2; while Vierge,scored no points all weekend despite being the strongest Yamaha rider throughout in his debut race weekend for the Iwata factory. 

The Spaniard already recovered some of his confidence at the Portimao test earlier this month, where Yamaha were one of the teams to stay on for a third day.

“I’m super excited to be back racing, especially after the test we had at Portimao a couple of weeks ago where we found some good positives to take forward,” said Vierge.

“It gave us something a little extra that we needed after Phillip Island. 

“Super happy and looking forward to jumping on my R1, to start working with the team again on track and continue growing the performance. 

“Round one was difficult, but we arrive together super motivated with the batteries recharged to make a good weekend.”

Locatelli’s result were ultimately better than Vierge but it’s the Italian with the most work to do ahead of round two, because the pace simply wasn’t there for the only rider other than Nicolo Bulega or Toprak Razgatlioglu to win a race in the 2025 World Superbike season.

“Looking forward to the second round of the season,” he said.

“For sure it was not an easy start for us in Phillip Island, but I want to be positive – I know we need to work to improve and close the gap quickly to the front group. 

“We know that when everything is working well, we are able to do it and I trust in this. We’ve missed a bit of riding in general from the winter, but we keep working. 

“Portimao has always been a good circuit for me and I’ve shown my potential here in the past. We will try to do our best like always, and let’s see what happens. I believe that we can do well and I’m happy to be back on track this weekend.”