REPORT – 2026 WORLD SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP AUSTRALIAN - JUST BIKES

REPORT – 2026 World Supersport Championship Australian round

Words: Mike Ryan

Photos: Russell Colvin (unless indicated)

To say the opening round of the FIM Supersport World Championship (WorldSSP) delivered something for everyone would be an understatement. With familiar names and a bunch of fresh faces at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, all 28 riders on the grid were looking to get off to a good start. Some got off to a better start than others…

REPORT – 2026 World Supersport Championship Australian round

A notable – and welcome – feature of this year’s WorldSSP races is that they didn’t have to be run under flag-to-flag conditions. While Race 2 would become a flag-to-flag due to rain, Pirelli were finally able to supply tyre compounds that could survive a full race distance without making a mid-race tyre change mandatory.

The weather was an important factor in the results on Sunday, but both days provided epic racing.

WorldSSP State of Play

Coming into the 2026 WorldSSP season, there were some notable changes to the rider lineup. Last year’s champion, Stefano Manzi, had moved to World Superbikes, opening the door to Can Oncu (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) and Jaume Masia (Orelac Racing Verdnatura - Ducati) who finished second and third last year. Tom Booth-Amos (PTR Triumph Factory Racing) was also looking to make a good start to 2026 after finishing fourth last year.

Oli Bayliss, the sole Australian in WorldSSP for 2026, was back with PTR Triumph Factory Racing, with other returnees including Jeremy Alcoba (Kawasaki WorldSSP Team), Philip Oettl (Feel Racing WorldSSP Team - Ducati) and Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha), all of whom were with the same teams as 2025. Xavi Cardelus had switched from Orelac Racing Verdnatura to join the Cerba Yamaha Racing Team, while Aldi Mahendra was still on a Yamaha, but this time with the AS BLU CRU Racing Team, who ran MV Agusta F3s last year.

Evan Bros Racing, who ran the BLU CRU squad last year, were now managing ZXMoto’s entry. For their WorldSSP debut, the Chinese brand had signed the experienced pairing of Valentin Debise and Federico Caricasulo to ride the ZXMoto 820RR.

Last year’s demise of MotoE saw several riders from that championship join the 2026 WorldSSP grid, including Matteo Ferrari (WRP Racing - Ducati), Mattia Casadei (D34G WorldSSP Team - Ducati) and Alessandro Zaccone (Ecosantagata Althea Racing Team - Ducati). Dominique Aegerter is a veteran of the electric bike series, too, as well as a two-time WorldSSP Champion. After three seasons in WorldSBK, the experienced Swiss was back in the class this year with the Kawasaki WorldSSP Team.

Riders making their WorldSSP debut at Phillip Island included Ricardo Rossi, Albert Arenas and Borja Jimenez. Both Rossi (Renzi Corse - Ducati) and Arenas (AS BLU CRU Racing Team - Yamaha) came to the class from the Grand Prix paddock, with the latter’s resume including the 2020 Moto3 World Championship. Jimenez’s experience was limited to domestic championships in Spain.

There were also a handful of riders on this year’s full-time grid with very little WorldSSP experience. These “near-rookies" included Ferrari, Josh Whatley (Orelac Racing Verdnatura - Ducati), Jacopo Cretaro and Andrea Giombini (Motozoo by Madforce Dubai), most of whom had no more than six race starts in WorldSSP prior to 2026.

WorldSSP Practise and Superpole

In the opening track session for WorldSSP on Friday, 20 February, Masia picked up where he left off at the Official Test, setting the fastest time of 1m32.120s in the sole Free Practise (FP) session for the category. Next best was Bayliss, who likewise repeated his placing from the Official Test. Oettl and Oncu were third and fourth fastest, respectively, with rookie Arenas an impressive fifth. Debise was sixth in a promising start for ZXMoto, ahead of Booth-Amos, with Whatley tenth in this session, ahead of Caricasulo on the second ZXMoto.

The FP session was not without incident, with more than a dozen riders going off track, including Bayliss, despite dry conditions.

Marginally warmer conditions for the Superpole session on Friday afternoon didn’t alter the order much, nor the times. Masia was fastest again, securing pole with a 1m32.115s lap, making it four different polesitters from the last four WorldSSP rounds at Phillip Island. Bayliss was second fastest with a 1m32.287s, while Debise improved to third with a 1m32.439s, giving ZXMoto a front row start on debut.

Row 2 would be made up of Oncu, Booth-Amos and Oettl, despite Booth-Amos highsiding at Turn 11 in the Superpole session. Arenas continued his impressive WorldSSP debut to secure seventh on the grid, ahead of Ferrari and Ondrej Vostatek (Compos Racing Team – Triumph), with Row 4 made up of Casadei, Roberto Garcia (GMT94 Yamaha) and Whatley.

Mahias was penalised three grid positions for slow riding during Superpole, demoting him to 16th, while Mahendra, after completing just one lap in Superpole, would be permitted to start from the back of the grid, despite not recording a qualifying time.

WorldSSP – SUPERPOLE

POLE J. Masia ESP Ducati 1m32.115s

WorldSSP Race 1

In conditions that seemed much closer to the 44-degree track temp than the 21-degree air temp, Oncu bolted to take the holeshot ahead of Debise and Masia, while Bayliss was mugged off the line, falling back to sixth in the first few corners. Despite his own less-than-ideal start, polesitter Masia had the lead back by the end of the opening lap, then built on it to be more than two seconds ahead of Oettl after just four laps.

Jimenez was the first retirement, followed by Booth-Amos on lap 4, then Debise on lap 8. By this stage, Bayliss had recovered and was fighting for a podium position. A lap later, he improved to third after an error from Oncu. While the Yamahas of Oncu and Arenas were able to get the better of Bayliss on Phillip Island’s slower sections, the Triumph could reel them in down Gardner Straight.

On lap 12, Bayliss almost threw his race away when he ran wide coming out of Siberia. Briefly on the grass, the Aussie dropped back to fifth, before fighting back to a podium place two laps later. Each advance in position was greeted by a roar from the parochial crowd around the outfield and within the paddock.

Out front, Masia was untouchable, the Spaniard holding a margin of around four seconds over Oettl, who had an even larger gap of more than five seconds to those behind. In the final laps, Bayliss was eating time out of the German, igniting hopes of a second-place result for the Aussie. Oettl later revealed he was managing his pace to ensure he finished, given others in the leading pack hadn’t.

At the end of 18 laps, Masia’s winning margin was 5.521 seconds over Oettl, with Bayliss a further 1.745 seconds further back. The third-place finish was not only Bayliss’s best-ever result at Phillip Island, but the best of his WorldSSP career. It was also the first WorldSSP podium for an Aussie at Phillip Island since Ant West back in 2017 – a 3,044 day wait between Aussie podiums at the home round. Greeted in parc ferme by his three-time WorldSBK Champion dad, Troy, Oli was stoked to achieve his first WorldSSP podium at his home round.

“It feels really good, I’m really happy,” Bayliss said. “The team’s done a great job all week and it’s good to finally put it together and be on the podium at home.

“[Troy] said it looked pretty hard, but I made it hard for myself with the start I got!”

An impressive debut for Arenas saw him finish in fourth, just ahead of Oncu and Ferrari. Behind them, Vostatek, Zaccone, Garcia and Alcoba completed the Top 10. Mahendra finished an impressive 13th from the back of the 28-rider grid, while Caricasulo was the best ZXMoto rider in 14th. Aegerter’s return to WorldSSP was hampered by a mechanical issue on the final lap, leading him to push his Kawasaki across the line to be classified as a finisher.

With the nine fastest laps from Race 1 setting the first three rows of the grid for Race 2, riders who had crashed or retired earlier returned to the track on fresh tyres to improve their starting position for Sunday’s race. The main beneficiary of this tactic was Mahias, who logged a 1m32.694s to secure fourth on the grid, while Debise’s second stint was good enough for ninth on the Race 2 grid.

WorldSSP - RACE 1

J. Masia ESP Ducati 27m57.193s
P. Oettl GER Ducati +5.521s
O. Bayliss AUS Triumph +7.266s
A. Arenas ESP Yamaha +7.721s
C. Oncu TUR Yamaha +7.743s

WorldSSP Race 2

The rain forecast for Sunday came ahead of the second WorldSSP race, but was neither heavy nor consistent. With the race declared wet and more rain expected, the majority of the grid decided to start on wet tyres, but Arenas, Mahendra, Giombini, Ferrari and Aegerter took a gamble by starting on slicks.

Masia’s fastest lap from Race 1 put him on pole for Race 2, with Oettl and Booth-Amos alongside on the front row. Mahias, Oncu and Bayliss filled Row 2, with Arenas, Ferrari and Debise on Row 3.

Oettl took the holeshot in the damp conditions, but Arenas was benefitting from the extra grip of his slicks to lead by turn 3. More impressive was the performance of Mahendra, who advanced from 28th to third by the end of the opening lap! Two laps later, the Indonesian would take the lead, but hold it only briefly before Arenas regained the ascendancy.

Within four laps, it was clear that the track was drying and those on slicks had the advantage. As such, the next few laps saw all those on wets, except Cardelus, pit to change tyres. This immediately handed an advantage to those who started on slicks - as long as the drying conditions held.

This resulted in a race of two parts, with the group who had started on slicks ahead of those who hadn’t, but with lapped riders all over the track, exactly who was leading was unclear. Surprisingly, there were no crashes in the greasy conditions, although Debise and Casadei would pit with technical issues.

Midway through the 18-lap race, Arenas was holding a 2.4 second advantage over team mate Mahendra, with Ferrari 10 seconds further back. Along with Giombini, this group represented the only real chance of completing the podium if they stayed upright, as the rest of the field was too far behind to close the gap. Only Oncu was able to unlap himself before the chequered flag.

Before being forced to change tyres, Bayliss was holding down fourth place, but was slipping back through the field. Rejoining in 16th, Bayliss improved to be twelfth at the finish, behind Masia in tenth and Oettl in eleventh. Some minor consolation came with the Fastest Lap award for the race.

At the front, Arenas was building his lead over Mahendra, with Ferrari comfortable in third. More heartbreak came for Aegerter when another technical issue struck, this time on the penultimate lap while in fourth place. There would be no repeat of his heroic push across the line this time.

A WorldSSP victor in only his second race, Arenas stopped on the cool-down lap to greet fans at Turn 10 before an ecstatic arrival into parc ferme. All three riders achieving their debut podium in one race has only happened once before - at the very first WorldSSP race in 1997.

“It feels good to win again,” Arenas said, referencing his five years in Moto2 without a victory. "It was a very weekend. It was also difficult. We started with some issues, but we overcame them, and it was very nice to take this win in Phillip Island.”

Arenas exited the opening round with 38 points and the championship lead, ahead of Masia (31), Ferrari (26) and Oettl (25), while Bayliss’s Race 1 podium placed him in seventh for the round.

WorldSSP - RACE 2