Three top-10 finishes: Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha) made the most of Cremona

The round in Cremona had the potential to be one of Yamaha’s better race weekends this year. The circuit layout, its length of just 3.7 km and the comparatively short straight suggested that the R1’s weaknesses would be less of an issue at the home race of star rider Andrea Locatelli.

Those hopes dimmed when the Italian failed to feature in the top 15 in any of the three free practice sessions and was consistently over a second off the fastest time. And when Locatelli crashed in Superpole and could only manage a place on the fifth row of the grid, the tenth round of the 2026 World Superbike Championship looked set to be a complete flop.

But in the first race, the 29-year-old proved his class, finishing sandwiched between the Bimota riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani. “Seventh place from P15 – that certainly wasn’t easy, but I tried to give it my best,” said a relieved Locatelli. “After I crashed at the end of qualifying, the team made a few set-up changes, and the feedback from the bike really helped me right from the start of the race: it gave me confidence, and I was able to really open the throttle. Overall, I can’t be entirely satisfied with the result.”

Willkommen zum Rennen in Cremona

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Nicolò Bulega

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Fans

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Sam und Alex Lowes

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Iker Lecuona

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Jake Dixon

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Garrett Gerloff

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Das Bike von Yari Montella

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Nicolò Bulega

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Axel Bassani

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Alex Lowes

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Xavi Vierge

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Alberto Surra

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Jake Dixon

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Andrea Locatelli

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Nicolò Bulega

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Sam Lowes

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Axel Bassani

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Yari Montella

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Andrea Locatelli

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Iker Lecuona gewinnt beide Läufe in Cremona

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Nicolò Bulega ist Superbike-Weltmeister 2026

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Weltmeister Nicolò Bulega

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Lauf 1 - Nicolò Bulega, Iker Lecuona, Sam Lowes

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Lauf 2 - Nicolò Bulega, Iker Lecuona, Yari Montella

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Cremona-Sieger Iker Lecuona

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Weltmeister Nicolò Bulega

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Willkommen zum Rennen in Cremona

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In the short sprint race, the Yamaha rider finished tenth, missing out on ninth place by just 0.8 seconds – a position that would have moved him up six places on the starting grid for the second race – but he ended up with another tenth place. With three top-10 finishes, the home race ended on a positive note.

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“It certainly wasn’t the easiest weekend for us, but we achieved decent results. We picked up some good points and learnt a lot – we worked really hard from Friday onwards to improve the set-up, made good progress and collected loads of useful data. So I’m quite happy with our work,” emphasised the Yamaha rider. “Of course, that’s still not enough, and we knew that Cremona has always been a tricky circuit for us, but I think we’ve shown a bit more potential this year.”

In the overall standings, Locatelli has moved up one place to 11th and is just seven points behind Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista.