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Tag: Bimota

  • WorldSBK: Bulega starts 2026 with Phillip Island sweep

    WorldSBK: Bulega starts 2026 with Phillip Island sweep

    The 2026 season of the Superbike World Championship kicked off down under at the Phillip Island Circuit with the Australian Round.  In the absence of Toprak Razgatlioglu, there was already a clear pre-season title favourite…

     

    Race 1

    From pole position, all Nicolo Bulega had to do after dominating the weekend so far was make it through the first lap unscathed.  He did just that and won comfortably by 5 seconds.

    Similarly unbothered in Race 1 was Yari Montella who claimed his first front-row start and ran comfortably to his best finish in 2nd place.  His new teammate Alvaro Bautista was not so fortunate, becoming the first rider of 2026 to crash out of a race in the early stages.

    Lorenzo Baldassari made a remarkable return to WorldSBK, forcing his way through to 3rd and just holding on to it ahead of Axel Bassani in a thrilling sprint to the finish line.  The two other podium contenders were the Lowes’ brothers, but Alex fell back in the closing stages to 7th behind his brother in 5th and a charging Iker Lecuona in 6th.

    Running in 8th and by far the best Yamaha rider on his debut for the marque was Xavi Vierge who was sent to the medical centre after a terrifying crash at Stoner corner that strew gravel across the track just before Miller hairpin.  Garrett Gerloff slipped up on the debris shortly after and reignited an intense battle for the lower top 10 positions.

    Gerloff had been battling impressive rookie Alberto Surra with the pair running ahead of a rejuvenated Tarran Mackenzie.  ‘Taz’ had enough pace to hold up Danilo Petrucci for several laps before Miguel Oliveria came through from the back of the grid (after a crash in Tissot Superpole) to clinch 8th at the flag.

    Mackenzie slipped to 12th but was ahead of a despondent Andrea Locatelli – the top Yamaha finisher in 13th and ahead of the two stand-in Honda HRC riders rounding out the points.  Despite the promise shown by Montella, Baldassari, Bassani and Oliveria, nothing could dispel the fact that Bulega was looking unbeatable after the opening race of 2026.

    Race 1 Results

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

     

    Tissot Superpole Race

    For the first time ever, Montella led a WorldSBK race after snatching the lead at the start.  Alex led his brother Sam with Bulega relegated to 4th, and his teammate Lecuona was also forced out wide at the beginning, while Vierge sadly never made the start.

    Bulega was back in the lead by lap 4 after some aggressive moves past the top 3 and was unchallenged thereafter.  Montella faded to 4th, with Bassani fighting through to 2nd ahead of his teammate Alex Lowes for a historic double Bimota podium.

    Sam Lowes was 5th ahead of Gerloff and Bautista with Race 1 star Baldassari down in 8th.  The Italian was fortunate to finish there after Oliveira’s phenomenal charge from the back of the grid fell short after suffering technical issues on the last lap so Lecuona took 9th – thus setting the grid for the first 3 rows of Race 2.

    Tissot Superpole Race Results

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

     

    Race 2

    With the white flag being waved midway through the Tissot Superpole Race, rain always looked like a possibility.  The soaking wet affair did nothing to faze Bulega who romped to another victory down under.

    Montella and Bassani broke free of the chasing Lowes’ brothers before Sam went down on lap 8.  Bautista settled in 4th as an impressive Mackenzie was impressively holding off Alex Lowes for 6th.

    Locatelli was having a better Race 2 than his dire Race 1 and was on his own in 7th ahead of a tight battle for 8th between Lecuona and the BMW duo, with Oliveira having come through from the back of the grid for the third race in succession.

    Montella tragically crashed out halfway through by which time Mattia Rato, Ryan Vickers and Vierge had also been eliminated from the wet affair.  Alex Lowes slid out with a fast lowside crash with 4 laps to go so all 15 riders who finished the race scored championship points.

    The retirements left big gaps for Bassani and Bautista to come home comfortably on the rostrum behind Bulega with Mackenzie scoring his best WorldSBK result in 4th, clearly enjoying his time aboard the satellite MGM Ducati.  Locatelli narrowly held off a charging Petrucci for 5th, with Oliveria, Lecuona and Baldassari close behind.

    Gerloff was alone in 10th and not quite as fast as he had been in dry conditions.  Up front, Bulega employed a swimming celebration to symbolise his treble victory around Phillip Island that has absolutely lived up to his reputation as the overwhelming 2026 title favourite.

    Race 2 Results

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

     

    Championship Standings

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK

  • WorldSBK: Points gap to Bulega slashed by Razgatlioglu after Misano treble

    WorldSBK: Points gap to Bulega slashed by Razgatlioglu after Misano treble

    Toprak Razgatlioglu has slashed the championship points lead of Nicolo Bulega after the BMW rider romped to a treble of victories in Misano and his Ducati rival went pointless in the Tissot Superpole Race.

    TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE

    With Bulega now able to start on pole position having served his 3-place grid penalty in Race 1 yesterday, he was keen to get the hole-shot into the first corner.  However, Axel Bassani (gambling on qualifying tyres for the half-distance event) got a much better launch but went into turn 1 too fast and eliminated himself and Bulega on the spot.

    Thankfully neither of the Italian riders were injured on home soil and were able to race again in the full-distance race in the afternoon.  Bulega was fuming that Bassani did not immediately offer an apology and the latter was dealt a double long-lap penalty for Race 2.

    Razgatlioglu was very fortunate to have avoided the chaos at turn 1 and after his main rival went down the half-distance race was a foregone conclusion.  The Turkish rider came home 4 seconds clear of an impressive Alex Lowes (also on qualifying rubber) in 2nd place who secured the first podium finish for Bimota in 25 years that arguably might have gone to his teammate if not for the accident at turn 1.

    The rival Yamahas of Andrea Locatelli and Remy Gardner squabbled over 3rd place on lap 1 and their resulting battle left the latter vulnerable to Danilo Petrucci.  Unfortunately for Petrucci’s teammate and compatriot Yari Montella he crashed out while chasing Iker Lecuona for the final points-paying position in 9th.

    Andrea Iannone was given yet another double long-lap penalty for jumping the start having already been found guilty of the same offence twice before this year.  That ruled him out of the fight for points, where the man with the most pace on Sunday morning was Alvaro Bautista.

    Bautista was determined to improve his grid position for Race 2 by finishing in the top 9 of the Tissot Superpole Race and eventually made it past Gardner for 5th.  Gardner then slipped behind Sam Lowes and Jonathan Rea, who was finally showing some promising pace in his injury-affected 2025 campaign.

    TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS

     

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    RACE 2

    Having dropped 12 points to Razgatlioglu in the Tissot Superpole Race and consigned to starting in 10th for Race 2 of the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round, Bulega had a point to prove on Sunday afternoon.  The championship leader had made it into 2nd place with 17 laps still to go, but it was already too late to catch Razgatlioglu up front who won by a dominant margin of almost 10 seconds.

    Once Razgatlioglu survived the first lap in the lead from pole position the ‘treble’ never looked in doubt.  This was the second time in as many years that Razagtlioglu had won all three races in Misano and he has now cut the points gap to Bulega down to just 9 points at the halfway point of the season.

    In the sweltering Sunday afternoon heat that was 3 degrees hotter than Race 1 a day earlier, Locatelli, Petrucci and Alex Lowes were once again the riders who ran behind Razgatlioglu.  Bautista took some time to get up to speed but after being passed by his charging teammate the Spaniard began his pursuit of the podium.

    Around the halfway point of the race, Bautista engaged in battle with Locatelli for 3rd and sealed the deal with a move at turn 10.  It was particularly important for Bautista to have a good result as it was revealed ahead of the Misano weekend that negotiations between himself and his factory Ducati team had broken down over a 2026 contract.

    Gardner and Montella suffered a high-speed crash while Jonathan Rea slid out of 9th to end his encouraging weekend on a low.  Likewise, Alex Lowes crashed out of 6th after his and Bimota’s breakthrough podium finish earlier in the day but recovered to finish 14th.

    The double long-lap penalty for torpedoing Bulega in the Tissot Superpole Race cost the other Bimota of Bassani any chance of a good result after such a strong qualifying earlier in the weekend, while Iannone’s nightmare weekend continued with a crash two laps from home.

    The attrition left Locatelli ahead of Petrucci in 4th, with the Italian struggling to keep the Lowes brothers and the Lecuona behind.  Once Alex Lowes slid off, Petrucci just held on ahead of Lecuona and Sam Lowes for another solid result that helps keep him narrowly ahead of the factory Ducati of Bautista in the championship.

    There was a monumental gap between Sam Lowes in 7th and Garrett Gerloff in 8th.  The fight over P8 however was absolutely thrilling.

    Gerloff prevailed over Xavi Vierge, an under-pressure Michael van der Mark and an impressive Ryan Vickers but the race-long fight for 8th also featured Iannone and Scott Redding before they both crashed out with less than 2 laps to go.  The battles further down the grid compensated for the lack of action at the sharp end as an ecstatic Razgatlioglu gets ever more motivated to switch to MotoGP next year as the reigning World Superbike champion, but Bulega is far from beaten as the season concludes its first half…

    RACE 2 RESULTS

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK