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Yamaha: “Misano was a positive fresh start to the 2026 Superbike World Championship”

Yamaha works rider Andrea Locatelli and team principal Paul Denning take stock following the Superbike round at Misano. Not everything went well, but it wasn’t all that bad either.

Superbike WC

18.06.2026 - 18:18

This article is an automatically generated English version. The original article was published in German.

Andrea Locatelli, im Hintergrund Stefano Manzi
© Gold & Goose

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Before the start of the season, critical voices dominated, but the World Championship rounds so far have shown that the rule changes are delivering exactly what was hoped for: excitement right up to the final lap.

Ever since the Superbike round in Hungary, at the very latest, Andrea Locatelli has once again been the undisputed number one in Yamaha’s factory team. The Italian, who struggled with the R1 at the start of the season, is currently only twelfth in the World Championship standings with 91 points, but he is within striking distance of Álvaro Bautista (Ducati) in eighth place; what’s more, Locatelli has scored 26 points more than his team-mate Xavi Vierge.

Last weekend at Misano, the division of roles within the Pata Maxus factory team was clearly defined. Finishing seventh, eighth and seventh, Locatelli secured the best Yamaha result in each race. Overflowing jubilation? Not a chance.

“Let’s just say it was a solid weekend with a good qualifying session, a good Race 1 and two fairly positive races on Sunday – but certainly not the results we’d hoped for,” grumbled Locatelli. “I tried to do my best, but we know it’s not easy. It was difficult, but I’m proud of what I achieved this weekend – we worked hard to set up the bike so that we had a working base configuration.”

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Following a run of disappointing race weekends, Yamaha have scaled back their expectations. “Getting closer to the top five and ultimately closing the gap to the podium is something we need to keep in mind. We’ll try to squeeze out a bit more to be a bit quicker from now on until the end of the season,” said the Italian. “We’ll keep pushing and then see what we can achieve when we return to Donington Park next month.”

“The results in the three races provide a good foundation for the rest of the season,” added team principal Paul Denning. “Considering the difficult start to the season, it was a positive fresh start with a strong performance in qualifying and three hard-fought, consistent races. And there’s definitely more to be expected from the package, the team and Loka himself as his confidence grows again.”

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