During the winter, Andrea Locatelli’s race 2 victory at the Netherlands Worldsub, taking on a new role as Yamaha Motor Europe’s road racing sports manager, was a milestone for Nicolo Canepa.
Not only was Kanepa taking over as the sports manager of road racing, Rocatelli’s Yamaha won first since Kanepa took over from Andrea Dosoli, but it was also his first victory since the 2023 Super Pole Race at Manny Course. Italian has also become the first rider outside of Top Lac Laz Gatrioguru, who won the Worldsub at Yamaha since winning the Super Pole Race at Geres in 2020.
Ending the year and a half wait is certainly important to Yamaha, but Kanepa wasn’t equally pleased with Locatelli himself.
“I’ve known him (locatelli) for a long time, so we’ve worked together in a variety of roles,” Kanepa told worldsbk.com.
“So it’s special to see him first because he really deserves it. He had some bad luck when he had the chance to win in the past, and this time he finally did it.
Canepa played a new role in the winter after spending several years as a factory Yamaha rider at the Endurance World Championships.
“We didn’t start in the best way in Australia, but we were able to fight for the podium again from Portimao and see Yamaha more competitive.
“So Cremona is a very important race for us, and we know that we have our headquarters not too far from there and are mainly sponsors from there, so it is a very important race weekend.
“Also, in Italy, Locatelli is Italian, so I really hope that we can continue to advance and achieve good results.”
Regarding his upcoming race at Cremona, Canepa added: “Roca doesn’t surprise me anymore when it’s in this shape. So, the bikes work, the teams work in a great way, so I believe that Roca is so strong that we can fight there too.”
Gardner’s podium: “Really special”
Locatelli wasn’t the only rider on the race 2 podium as Remy Gardner scored the first podium finish of the season in Race 2.
This was Gardner’s second podium finish at World Superbike, and the other appeared in Race 2 at the Assen of the 2024 World BK Dutch Round.
“He was on the podium here last year, so it’s really special. He’s been struggling a bit this weekend,” Kanepa said.
“In the end, the team helped him, found a good environment and he managed to get back to the podium. He raced very strong again.
“He was a bit unlucky last year, so I hope he can get to the podium again this year, for his team, Yamaha.”