SPECIAL CONTENT > YAMAHA'S ACTIVITIES
YAMAHA ALL SET TO DEFEND WORLDSBK TRIPLE CROWN AFTER ENCOURAGING BARCELONA TEST Yamaha heads into the 2022 season looking to defend the FIM Superbike World Championship ‘Triple Crown’, having won the riders’, manufacturers’ and teams’ titles last year, and has been working hard to ensure it remains at the sharp end of the highly competitive WorldSBK field. The recent Barcelona test (25-26 March) gave Yamaha, as well as the teams and riders, some encouragement, having topped the timings overall with Toprak Razgatlıoğlu.
At the GYTR GRT Yamaha squad, Garrett Gerloff and Kohta Nozane will once again partner up, hoping to continue taking the team forwards. Gerloff endured a difficult second season in WorldSBK, but still came away seventh in the standings and finished as the Top Independent Rider, while GYTR GRT Yamaha was named as the Best Independent Team. The American has continued to show he’s one of the fastest in the championship and is aiming to turn that impressive speed into race wins in 2022. His
The roller coaster 2021 campaign will go down in history as one of the most exciting, unpredictable and memorable seasons of all time, as Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldBSK’s Razgatlıoğlu took on six-time WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea. Though there were many ups and downs, the Turkish rider would eventually get the job done at an intense season finale in Indonesia. This incredible achievement was not only down to Razgatlıoğlu’s sensational on-track heroics, but also the hard work and dedication by the Yamaha engineers and technicians, as well as the entire Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldBSK crew. For 2022, the drive to continue raising the bar has ensured that Yamaha heads into the new season with every opportunity of repeating last year’s successes. Both the Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK and GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s line-ups will remain unchanged this season. Razgatlıoğlu will once again have Andrea Locatelli alongside at the Crescent Racing-run team; the Italian heading into his second WorldSBK season after a stunning maiden campaign. Locatelli ended the championship fourth in the standings, earning him the Rookie of the Year title, and is targeting regular podium visits and a first victory.
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teammate Nozane improved throughout his maiden campaign, with his standout performance coming in the final wet Indonesian race. Alongside these two, the GIL Motorsport Yamaha team will also be fielding a Yamaha R1 for the returning Christophe Ponsson, who enjoyed his best season to date in 2021, while Motoxracing Yamaha will run Isaac Viñales. The Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK team got its 2022 pre-season preparation underway at the beginning of February, testing at the Algarve International Circuit in Portimão.
