Andrea Locatelli started the World Superbike season with a podium by finishing second in the opening race at Phillip Island. The Pata Prometeon Yamaha rider led the race until being overtaken by the winner, Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati), on the 12th lap, and then held off Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven/Ducati) in the final stages.
The #55 was happy with his performance on Saturday, as he said to the championship’s official website: ‘I think this was one of the best races we did. I was fighting a lot, especially on the second tyre. So we need to be happy. I was struggling a bit at the beginning of the race; this was a bit disappointing, it was tricky and I tried to recover but it wasn’t so easy. But then in the second part of the race I really pushed hard on the bike and I was feeling much better, so I recovered a lot. I overtook the two guys in front of me and we finished second. It’s a good start for us, for sure, it’s a P2, we’ve got a lot of points, so this is important. And I get this confidence for sure, and we’ll try again tomorrow’.
Asked about the positions lost at the start, Locatelli explained: ‘Honestly it was a bit strange. I started very well and I overtook immediatly the other rider, but I don’t know why in the end of the straight we’ve lost a lot of position. It wasn’t easy to manage the first lap, and then I started to recover a little bit until the end’.
The Italian is aware of what he needs to do for tomorrow’s races: ‘We just need to try to improve, start a bit more in front tomorrow and try again on the second race – because I think the potential we have and especially the rhythm is quite high. When we are on the back of other riders sometimes we lost something, so we just need to try to be closer and a bit more in front and then I think we can do another good job’.