REPORT – 2026 WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP AUSTRALIAN - JUST BIKES

REPORT – 2026 World Superbike Championship Australian round

Words: Mike Ryan

Photos: Russell Colvin (unless indicated)

Over the past eleven years, the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) has crowned only three different champions. Coming into 2026, one of that trio has retired, one has left the series and the third is in the twilight of his career. As such, there will be a new champion this year. The opening round at Phillip Island saw one rider make a very strong case to be that champion.

REPORT - 2026 World Superbike Championship Australian round

Despite weather conditions that made the two main races at Phillip Island as different as night and day, the 2026 season opener for WorldSBK saw a familiar face and a familiar brand lead the field. Although one rider dominated the weekend, there was enough to show that the champion-in-waiting may not have it all his own way this season.

WorldSBK State of Play

Of the factory teams who descended on Phillip Island for Round 1 of WorldSBK, only the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team arrived with an unchanged lineup. Retaining Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani for the second year of the bbKRT project, bimota were looking to start strong and be the prime challengers to Aruba.it Racing - Ducati.

Nicolo Bulega, Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s lead rider, pushed BMW’s Toprak Razgatlioglu all the way in 2025, only missing the title by 13 points. With Razgatlioglu now in MotoGP, Bulega is the obvious favourite for this year’s WorldSBK title.

Joining the Italian on the factory Panigale V4R this year is Iker Lecuona, who had spent the past four years with Honda HRC for precious little return.

With Razgatliogu gone and Michael van der Mark demoted to a test rider role, the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team started 2026 with an all-new rider lineup. Danilo Petrucci and Miguel Oliveira were the new additions to BMW’s factory team, the latter making his WorldSBK debut from MotoGP.

At Pata Maxus Yamaha, the retirement of Jonathan Rea saw his place filled by Xavi Vierge, who had partnered Lecuona at Honda HRC from 2020 to 2025. Andrea Locatelli remains for his sixth season with the factory Yamaha team.

Honda HRC welcomed two new faces – Somkiat Chantra and Jake Dixon – but neither would race in the opening round. Chantra was injured in the off-season, while Dixon fractured his hand during the final pre-season test at Phillip Island. In their place, HRC fielded Tetsuta Nagashima and Ryan Vickers.

Outside of the factory teams, the semi-factory Kawasaki WorldSBK Team retained Garrett Gerloff, while Motoxracing WorldSBK Team re-signed Bahattin Sofuoglu for a second season on the satellite Yamaha. Sam Lowes was on board for a third year with ELF Marc VDS Racing Team, and Tarran Mackenzie was back with the rebranded MGM Optical Express Racing squad on a Ducati Panigale V4R.

Notable moves amongst the satellite teams in the off-season included Alvaro Bautista’s switch from Aruba.it Racing - Ducati to Barni Spark Racing Team, joining Yari Montella on the satellite Panigale V4R. The experienced Lorenzo Baldassarri was back in WorldSBK with Team Goeleven Ducati after spending 2025 in the now defunct MotoE World Championship.

Along with Oliveira, Chantra and Dixon, WorldSBK’s rookies for 2026 included last year’s World Supersport Champion, Stefano Manzi, who had joined GYTR GRT Yamaha alongside Australia’s Remy Gardner. Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing Ducati) and Mattia Rato (Motoxracing WorldSBK Team Yamaha) came to the class with a handful World Supersport (WorldSSP) starts between them.

Perennial backmarkers, Petronas MIE Honda Racing, were absent from the Phillip Island entry list, as was Andrea Iannone’s Cainam Racing Team, although the latter may appear in European rounds.

WorldSBK Practise and Superpole

The opening Free Practise session on Friday, 20 February, saw Bulega top the timesheets with the only sub-1m29s lap. Sam Lowes was more than half a second behind, with Bassani next fastest, followed by Montella, Alex Lowes and Baldassarri in the dry, warm conditions.

Oliviera was the best of the rookies in ninth, while Gardner was hampered by his pre-season injuries – a fractured arm and dislocated shoulder - and only set the 17th fastest time.

Bulega was fastest again in Friday afternoon’s Free Practise 2, while Alex was the better of the Lowes twins this time around. Bassani made it two bimotas in the top three, while Bautista improved from eighth to fourth in this session. The factory BMWs struggled – eleventh for Petrucci and thirteenth for Oliveira – but Lecuona improved, as did Vierge. Gardner slipped to 19th.

The final Free Practise session on Saturday, 21 February, was almost a carbon copy of FP1, with Bulega on top from Sam Lowes and Bassani. Gerloff achieved the session’s fifth fastest time (his best so far) behind Alex Lowes. Lecuona continued his improvement to be sixth fastest, with the new BMW duo improving to be inside the Top 10. Gardner finished this session 17th, but with six of the bottom nine times being Yamahas, this was more a reflection of the R1’s lack of pace.

Saturday’s Superpole session was predictable insofar as Bulega taking the top spot with a 1m28.244s lap – his third successive WorldSBK pole at Phillip Island. In conditions that were hotter than the recorded air temperature of 21 degrees suggested, Montella improved to take the second spot on the grid – his first front row start in WorldSBK. Sam Lowes completed the front row, with Alex Lowes leading Row 2 alongside Bassani and Petrucci. Row 3 would be made up of Baldassari, Gerloff and Vierge.

Gardner improved to 14th, with his new team mate Manzi in 18th, but Oliveira crashed in the session, meaning he’d start from last on the grid.

WorldSBK – SUPERPOLE

POLE N. Bulega ITA Ducati 1m28.244s

WorldSBK Race 1

For the opening WorldSBK race of 2026, the official air temp reading was just 20.9 degrees, but conditions felt closer to the track temp of 41.5. In this heat, Bulega got the holeshot and had built a gap over second-placed Montella within the first few corners.

Alex Lowes was doing his best to prevent the race becoming a Ducati Cup, harassing Montella on the opening laps, while Baldassarri was showing impressive pace on his return to WorldSBK after two years away, moving from sixth to third by lap 5.

Bautista’s debut with Barni Spark Racing ended with a crash at turn 11 on lap 2, while Petrucci’s first race for BMW saw him drop from sixth on the grid to ninth on lap 1, then 13th before recovering. Oliveira was having a better start, gaining nine places in the opening eight laps.

By the third lap, Bulega had a lead of more than a second over Montella. Bassani was cited for irresponsible riding after bumping Sam Lowes and had to drop one position, while newcomer Surra was looking impressive in the Top 10 against Gerloff. Clearly hampered by injury, Gardner completed the first lap in 13th, then dropped to 15th.

Midway through the 22-lap race, Bulega’s lead stood at almost three seconds, with second-placed Montella around two seconds ahead of Baldassarri. With the podium seemingly secured, an entertaining battle developed behind this trio, between the Bimotas, then the Lowes twins.

Lecuona and Vierge, the former team mates, spent time battling each other at the tail of the Top 10 before the former was able to pull away. Vierge’s race ended spectacularly on lap 17 when he crashed coming out of turn 3. Although the Spaniard was able to walk away, his Yamaha threw gravel into the braking area for turn 4 as it disintegrated, with parts of the bike almost reaching turn 4 itself.

By this stage, Bulega’s lead was 4.5 seconds over Montella, but Baldassarri’s third place was less secure. Bassani was cutting into Baldassarri in the closing stages, but the Goeleven rider hung on by less than a bike length to record his first ever podium in WorldSBK. It was a positive return to the category for Baldassarri, whose previous stint with Yamaha in 2023 delivered a best race result of twelfth. Montella’s runner-up finish was also his first podium in WorldSBK, but Bulega's winning margin of almost five seconds was an ominous sign for the rest of the field.

The all-Italian podium was most recently seen in Race 1 at Assen last year, while for an all-Ducati podium, you had to go back to the Superpole Race at Phillip Island last year.

“This has been amazing!” Bulega enthused. “We've been fastest in every session, we started from pole and then we won Race 1. It's been incredible.

“This track is unbelievable for me and every time I ride here I enjoy every lap.”

Behind fourth-placed Bassani, Sam Lowes held off Lecuona and Alex Lowes, while Oliveira made the best of his bad situation, finishing eighth after starting from the back of the grid. Surra and Petrucci completed the Top 10, finishing in a cluster that included Gerloff and Mackenzie.

Gardner dropped out of the points as the race wound down, then withdrew with two laps remaining, citing rear grip issues. Manzi also DNF’d on his WorldSBK debut.

WorldSBK RACE 1

N. Bulega ITA Ducati 32m56.857s
Y. Montella ITA Ducati +4.776s
L. Baldassarri ITA Ducati +6.147s
A. Bassani ITA Bimota +6.183s
S. Lowes GBR Ducati +8.249s

WorldSBK – Superpole Race

With rain forecast for Sunday, 22 February, Sam Lowes went fastest in the morning warm-up before the afternoon’s Superpole Race started under leaden skies but dry conditions. Vierge, while declared fit to race, was a non-starter due to a technical problem with his R1.

In what would be his worst race start for the entire weekend, Bulega was passed by Montella into turn 1, then ran wide in turn 2, allowing the Lowes twins through. Lecuona also ran wide into turn 1, dropping five places.

As Bulega began to pick his way through the leading trio to take the lead on lap 4 of 10, Oliveira was repeating his heroics from the day before, gaining ten places by the race’s mid-point. Bautista was improving, too, passing Mackenzie, then Petrucci and Baldassarri.

Light rain began to fall on lap 4 but was neither widespread nor heavy enough to impact lap times or force a tyre change. As Bulega stretched his lead, and Montella began to fall back, Alex Lowes and Bassani advanced into provisional podium positions.

Montella rallied in the final laps to threaten Alex Lowes for the final podium position, but had to settle for fourth as Bulega kept his perfect record for the weekend intact. Bassani’s runner-up finish was his first podium since 2023, while second and third for Bimota was the factory’s first double podium since the inaugural year of WorldSBK in 1988.

With the first nine places in this race setting the first three rows of the grid for Race 2, the main beneficiaries were Gerloff, Bautista and Lecuona, who finished sixth, seventh and ninth, respectively.

Gardner finished outside the points in 16th, while Oliveira had another hard luck story when a quickshifter issue locked his M 1000 RR in gear and he plummeted from ninth to 18th on the final lap.

WorldSBK Superpole Race

N. Bulega ITA Ducati 14m56.175s
A. Bassani ITA Bimota +2.752s
A. Lowes GBR Bimota +3.563s
Y. Montella ITA Ducati +3.585s
S. Lowes GBR Ducati +3.985s

WorldSBK – Race 2

While rain had been light enough to make slick tyres viable for World Supersport Race 2, there was no such consideration for World Superbikes. Race 2 was declared wet, with all riders starting on rain tyres.

Superpole Race results meant Bulega remained on pole, but would be joined by Bassani and Alex Lowes on the front row, with Montella, Sam Lowes and Gerloff on Row 2, then Bautista, Baldassarri and Lecuona on Row 3.

Bulega got the holeshot from Alex Lowes, Montella and Bassani, but the latter would be in second place within a couple of corners. Baldassarri copped a double long lap penalty for a jump start, while Locatelli and Mackenzie improved their positions early.

As Bulega built his lead, seemingly unfazed by the wet conditions, Montella made a pass on Bassani for second on lap 2. Sam Lowes then passed Bassani on lap 4, but seemed unable to close the margin to Montella.

Mackenzie’s experience in wet conditions was coming to the fore, with the former British Superbike Champion up to fifth place by lap 11. That advance was assisted by Sam Lowes’s heavy crash at turn 3 on lap 8 that mirrored that of Vierge from the day before and left the Brit with what was later diagnosed as a fractured wrist.

Gardner, starting from 14th, would bounce back and forth between 13th and 14th in the early laps before falling back to 16th behind Surra. Another crash for Vierge, this time at Turn 2, ended a miserable weekend for the Spaniard, with Vickers retiring, too.

Midway through the 22-lap race, the leaders were now strung out, with Bulega’s gap over Montella almost four seconds, and Bassani a further four seconds back. Behind them, Alex Lowes was now in a battle with Mackenzie and Bautista, with a gap to Locatelli, then Lecuona and the BMWs of Petrucci and Oliveira.

Montella threw away his podium with a crash at turn 9 on lap 16, elevating Bassani into second and Bautista third. Mackenzie was falling into the clutches of Alex Lowes by this stage, but when Lowes crashed at Turn 1 on lap 19, the pressure was off and the MGM Optical Express rider cruised to fourth - his best result since joining the category in 2024.

Making light of the treacherous conditions, Bulega engaged in a swimming motion as he crossed the line more than 11 seconds ahead of Bassani, with Bautista completing the podium. Bulega’s perfect weekend saw him record the fastest laps in every FP Session and Superpole, while three race wins echoed his clean sweep at Phillip Island last year.

“It was an amazing weekend. Honestly, it was incredible,” Bulega said. “I was a bit angry before Race 2 because I knew I had a very good feeling and strong pace in the dry, but it started to rain. I tried to turn that frustration into positive energy to win in the wet as well.”

Bassani and Bautista completed the Race 2 podium, while Locatelli's fifth was a positive finish to what had been a fairly miserable weekend for the Italian. Petrucci and Oliveira finished in sixth and seventh, respectively, followed by Lecuona, Baldassarri and Gerloff. Gardner came home in 13th to salvage a handful of points from the weekend, with Manzi 14th.

World Superbikes RACE 2