Pata Maxus Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli was sixth-fastest overall on the second day of the FIM Superbike World Championship Official Test at Phillip Island in Australia today, completing a final shakedown with the Yamaha R1 WorldSBK before the start of the 2025 season.

Two smooth and largely problem-free test days provided a welcome return to the Italian rider’s favourite race track, where in 2024 Locatelli was tantalisingly close to taking his maiden WorldSBK win. The circuit holds further fond memories as the starting site of “Loka’s” record-breaking sweep of the FIM Supersport World Championship in 2020.

But racing at Phillip Island is far from simple, where the abrasive, high-grip, high-speed nature of the 4.445km circuit requires a special blend of optimum set-up, tyre management, rider confidence and a dash of luck.

After an extremely positive winter test programme in the run up to Phillip Island and initial optimism in yesterday’s first test session, Jonathan Rea was cruelly ruled out of contention for the opening round of the 2025 season after a high-speed crash at the exit of Turn 2. The six-time WorldSBK Champion sustained multiple fractures to his left foot and his recovery plan is currently under professional consultancy, with details to be decided in due course. Rea travels home tomorrow (Wednesday) in order to recuperate and begin his rehabilitation.

Pata Maxus Yamaha will return to the track on Friday morning in full support of Locatelli in his quest to deliver podiums and a maiden win Down Under, with Free Practice 1 from 11:20am AEDT (GMT+11).
Andrea Locatelli – 6th, 1’29.493 (FP3)“It was important to ride these two days because I got back the feeling that I was missing in the winter tests where the track conditions were a bit tricky. I am not 100% happy just yet about every aspect, but we are for sure happy about the race simulation that I tried yesterday afternoon. At the moment, it looks like we can fight for the podium – and my goal when we arrived was to try to focus just on winning, because why not? Honestly, I want to believe until the end! Phillip Island is a special track, I have a lot of motivation to make the best result possible so this is the focus. I want to be realistic, I think we have a chance to do well here and we will try! We just need to work a little bit more on the bike on Friday, but we have more data now and more details to make the best package.”

Jonathan Rea – 1’30.885 (FP1)“Honestly, it was going so well – no issues, good plan, started fast in the top four or five, working through and put my first fresh set of tyres in during the last 20 minutes, and on my first flying lap I just lost the rear marginally and then it gripped again abruptly. It kicked me up and I landed on the bike again, then it sort of threw me over – that was fine, I landed fine, but the bike was cartwheeling and it landed on my foot. Took quite a lot of damage, so now I’m just going through the process. It isn’t possible to operate immediately because of the swelling and we’re speaking to a few different consultants about surgery and timeframes. I don’t know much right now – everything felt so smooth and we made a small step forward on the bike, I’m just gutted you know. It doesn’t take much in racing to just keep that snowball effect and keep it rolling forward. We had a good winter test and it’s just been undone, but it could have been so much worse – we’ll try and be back stronger. It’s day by day really, first we will speak to some professionals, but I’m gutted.”

Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Maxus Yamaha:“Phillip Island is a beautiful circuit to come to, but the high-grip and very high-speed nature of the track means that it can also be unforgiving when things go wrong. Our test and the start of Pata Maxus Yamaha’s season has been overshadowed by Jonathan’s accident and it’s difficult to put any “spin” on the story right now – especially when the winter tests rolling into the 2025 season have been so positive and Jonathan’s confidence and motivation was at such a high level. Being the champion and athlete that he is, we know that he will put everything into his recovery as he does into racing, so let’s view this episode in the story as simply a delay to seeing the real JR performing at his absolute best on the R1. We are a two-rider team – and we’re at one of Andrea Locatelli’s favourite circuits. While Loka’s winter test programme was not as positive as Jonathan’s, his confidence is rebuilding step-by-step here in Australia and the speed and feeling is developing nicely. Without any fundamental issues, the team has just been fine-tuning the package to give Loka the confidence he needs for these high-speed corners. It’s coming and we’re getting closer to the podium pace after every lap – we are in a good place to start the race weekend on Friday morning.”