Changing Czech Conditions in Friday Free Practice for Pata Maxus Yamaha at Most

Andrea Locatelli and Jonathan Rea tackled a tricky day of changing conditions as Round 5 of the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship began at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic today.

Both riders suffered from “nasty” crashes during Free Practice 1 this morning with a combination of unseasonably chilly temperatures, heavy rainfall overnight and a dirty, low-grip track surface. The session was compromised by red flags throughout, as other riders in the premier class were also caught out.

Locatelli found positive pace on his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK, despite riding with some pain in Free Practice 2, and hopes to make a step tomorrow to fight for the podium – looking for a repeat or better of his 2024 performance at the Czech Round.

Rea was also thankfully uninjured from his fall and found a good feeling in the afternoon session after missing practically all of FP1. The WorldSBK stalwart felt stronger on his own #65 race machine and is targeting clean race results as he continues to build into his season since returning from injury.

With the first main points-paying opportunity tomorrow afternoon, both riders will be resting up ahead of one final Free Practice 3 at 9:00 CEST, followed by the all-important Superpole qualifying for grid position at 11:00 before Race 1 at 14:00.

Andrea Locatelli: P9 – 1'31.928

“A bit unlucky today, especially this morning in FP1 – I was running really well and felt confident with my R1 until a big high-side on T16. Unfortunately, I still feel pain on my left shoulder and left knee, but no damage and I was able to ride this afternoon. Not too many laps in the end though because I was feeling some pain and we were trying different set-up changes with the bike. Basically, we are not so far away and we can still work a bit more. I hope that tomorrow morning the track conditions will be alright to try to improve. I am feeling quite positive, if we can make another step forward we can fight in reality for the podium – so let’s try to make the best result and keep pushing until the end. The most important thing, is that I didn’t have a big impact, just a bit of pain and we will work tonight to prepare for tomorrow.”

Jonathan Rea: P13 – 1'32.457

“My day started really badly because I had a pretty nasty crash at T7 where I lost the rear, it was a complete surprise – we’re still a little bit confused why the crash happened, I was doing everything right like the lap before, but during the session quite a lot of riders crashed from the rear. I think we’re just not going to use that same tyre again, it was a new development tyre that nobody had any information on. Unfortunately, I lost all of the session, so my Free Practice 2 was like FP1. I got up to speed ok, then we didn’t need to make too many adjustments to the set-up, my R1 felt pretty good. Just at the end, I ran out of time to come in – I wanted to try a new tyre to make a push or a time attack at the end but I didn’t have enough time. I felt ok on the bike, much stronger than in Cremona and I enjoyed riding my R1 to be honest – it’s giving me some feedback as well, so I think from this point we can start to move forward with everything. The weekend looks quite strange from a weather point of view, so I hope tomorrow gives us some consistent conditions and we can work to improve the feeling further – qualify well and the target in the race is to finish with a good feeling and make a step forward.”