Andrea Locatelli was able to utilise the poor conditions at the🌄 recent Portimao WorldSBK te🐓st to work on an area specific to the upcoming 2025 season opener in Australia.

While Tuesday afternoon was largely dry inꩵ Portimao, Wednesday was affected by rain almost throughout.

“[Tuesday] was not a bad day and we just focused on riding the bike, understanding if all t🉐he things we tried in Jerez were fixed,” Locatelli said.

“So, more or less, we are happy; it was a difficult winter [for 🍒the] conditions, so we don’t ride too much, but the feeling is not so bad.

Like last year, this year’s Phillip Island race will be subject to compulsory pit stops as a result of concern over tyre durability. Locatelli and Yamaha decided to take advantage of the mixed conditions in Portimao to consider “strategies” for this aspect of the Phillip Islan🦋d race that will be exclusive 𒁏to the Australian Round.

“It will be compulsory this year [at Phillip Island], so they [the team] want to try m🌜any different strategies for the pit stop,” Locatelli said after doing some pit stop practice on the second day in Portimao.

“It looks lik🔥e everything is workin♕g, so we just need to be ready and I just need to go fast.”

Before the race at Phillip Islan🥂d there is one final two-day test, with Locatelli aiming to first digest everything he has tried since theꦦ first day of testing in Jerez in order to develop a plan for the final winter test of 2025.

“Now we have a couple of weeks to understand ♏what we tried in Jerez and Portimao, so after this couple of weeks the Yamaha staff will understand what is necessary to try again and what not [to try],” he said.

“At the moment, we don’t have a million things to try– fortunately, because also we don’t𝔍 want to make a lot of co🌌nfusion.

“So, we just try to arrive in Philli𒐪p Island with the best solution we have and we try to go as fast as possible.”