riding at the tail end of the season was a vast improvement over some of his early season efforts. Both Balda and Surra can be expected to give Montella and Sam Lowes a hard time in the chase for independent glory in 2027 and, as previously reported, Montella will be joined by Xavi Vierge in 2027. Sam Lowes seems likely to be joined by 2026 World SuperSport champion Albert Aranas so the battle for independent rider and team titles in 2027 is going to be fascinating.
VIERGE AND LOCATELLI Xavi Vierge, dropped by Yamaha in favour of Jack Miller for 2027, was best of the Yamahas again at Jerez although it was still a challenging weekend for him as his Race One ended prematurely when his bike caught fire in a big way and forced him to retire. Ninth in the Sprint Race gave him a third row start for Race Two but he slipped back to twelfth at the finish. Teammate Locatelli had another horrible outing, qualifying in twentieth and only able to score points in Race One. Loka finished in twelfth in the series, eight points ahead of Vierge but it’ s fair to say that Vierge was the better rider towards the back end of the season and, hopefully, whatever is ailing Loka will resolve itself before the start of 2027, because he is a very good rider but it’ s just not happening for him on the R1. Vierge would likely not be too upset to have been released by Yamaha now he’ s landed himself a ride on a Barni Spark Racing Ducati, but probably would have liked to come away from 2026 as top Yamaha in the series. He came close, very close and it should be remembered that this was his first season on the R1 whereas Loka has been riding it since 2021 after moving to Superbikes from his World SuperSport championship win in 2020. Fourth in the championship in 2025 to twelfth in 2026 is not a happy outcome and hopefully Miller joining the team in 2027 will somehow energise Loka and the team.
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