Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK Catalan Campaign Awaits

Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK riders Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Andrea Locatelli return to battle in Barcelona for the eighth round the 2022 FIM Superbike World Championship this weekend, from 23-25 September.

Razgatlıoğlu, who has just climbed to second overall in the Riders’ Championship standings following his double victory in Magny-Cours, celebrated two second-place podiums at the Catalunya Round in 2021 and was also on course for a confident wet race victory if not for a technical fault that saw him retire from the lead with just five laps remaining.

Barcelona holds happy memories for teammate Locatelli as the site he sealed the 2020 FIM Supersport World Championship title. After a mixed weekend in 2021 with a best fifth-place finish from Race 2, “Loka” is hoping to challenge the podium runners in the premier class once again.

Despite only joining the series calendar in 2020, the 4.657 km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has become a regular testing venue for the WorldSBK field – seen in action as recently as just one month ago, when all the top teams visited during the summer break to gather high temperature data in anticipation of this very round.

Thunderstorms and lightning forecast for Saturday and Sunday could put paid to any pre-race predictions based on that test, with the only certainty being another action-packed WorldSBK round ahead. Friday Free Practice 1 and 2 – each 45-minutes long – will start from 10:30 (CEST) and 15:00.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu:

“Barcelona is not an easy track and I know that it won’t be an easy race for us in Catalunya, but we will try to fight for the best position possible and we will see. The summer test was good because we tried some new set-up to use for the race, and overall it was a positive test. Race weekend is always different, especially now! Every weekend it is changing a lot, but we try our best. Like last year, I am not looking at the championship, only try best in every race. I hope we can win in Barcelona, let’s see.”

Andrea Locatelli:

“During the test in Barcelona, we worked very well with the bike. We need to start from here and to continue working on the set-up to try to close the gap to the front. We want to do this, but for my confidence as well, for me it’s important to stay more in front. For sure it’s a good track for me, last year we had one good result but it was a difficult weekend overall. We put this behind us but I need to understand what more we can do during the weekend, we need to continue pushing and the feeling in Barcelona is so good. I will try to do a really good job there, and push in the second half of the season to finish strongly.”