Canepa encouraged by four Yamahas in the top five after Day 1 of the Jerez test: "It was a very good day!"
2026 is looking full of opportunity for Yamaha’s Niccolo Canepa as both of his new riders, Vierge and Manzi finished among the three fastest riders.
It was a promising sign for Yamaha's 2026 season; despite their trio of new riders’ unfamiliarity with the Yamaha R1 platform, they had a strong showing on Day 1 of testing at the Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto, Andalucia. Yamaha Motor Europe’s Sporting Manager of their Road Racing Division, Nicolo Canepa, was pleased with the performance his riders both new and old put on, as despite their different testing agendas, Yamaha ended up occupying four of the top five positions on the timesheets.
NEW FACES SHINE AT JEREZ: Vierge finishes top Yamaha with Manzi close behind in P3
Sporting a pair of new faces across the Pata Maxus Yamaha and GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK squads, there was much to do for both teams as they looked to both acclimate their riders and begin to make steps with their bikes. Xavi Vierge (Pata Maxus Yamaha) made the jump onto the R1 after four seasons with the factory Honda team. He finished the day as the top Yamaha despite this being his first time on the bike. Battling with him for top Yamaha honours, defending WorldSSP Champion Stefano Manzi (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) looked just as fast across the day. The inbound rookie tallied up the most laps of any rider by far with 95, a testament to the Italian’s hunger to succeed in the category.
On his pair of rookies’ opening day of testing for the 2026 season, Road Racing Sporting Manager within Yamaha Motor Europe, Niccolo Canepa said: “It was a very good day! We have two new riders, and track conditions were perfect. It was really useful to be here. We’re really happy. Xavi gave us a lot of really precise feedback. He integrated immediately with the crew. I’m really happy. He finished the first day on top of the other Yamahas, which is impressive so early. We appreciate his comments and we’re looking forward to working together more. Stefano also did a really fantastic job today; he tested on the bike for one day this season, but it’s not easy to step up in WorldSBK. It’s very challenging, but his lap time was very good; he stepped up very quickly. He’s a World Champion, so we knew he’d be fast next year, but it’s important to start out on the right foot.”
EXPERIMENTING WITH THE SETUP: Locatelli and his team were thinking outside the box on Jerez’s opening day of testing
While it is true that Andrea Locatelli's (Pata Maxus Yamaha) new fellow riders in blue and Yamaha independent rider Bahattin Sofuoglu (Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) were very impressive today and finished ahead of the 2025 top Yamaha rider, he and his team were focused on trying out different things with their setup as opposed to striving for outright speed.
On Locatelli’s opening test day at Jerez, Canepa said: “Loka was more focused on trying something different. During the race weekend, you can’t make big changes to the setup, and we wanted to experiment by trying something different. It was interesting to hear the comments from it; he didn’t use soft tyres or qualifying tyres; he just wanted to focus on the feeling without pushing over the limit. He did, as always, a good job, especially after Race 2, where he was fourth. We know he has the speed when we need him to go fast.”
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