Axel Bassani's bimota powered
by a Kawasaki engine.
Another new thing, from rid-
ers aiming to dominate it.
Sam Lowes was fifth, and, from
a lowly 13th place in Superpole
qualifying, new factory Ducati
rider Iker Lecuona was sixth,
while Alex Lowes was seventh.
Oliveira, amazingly, came
through to eighth from last.
He would have to do the ride-
through just as hard in the Super
-
pole sprint, but that was a differ-
ent beast to the warm and sunny
test days earlier in the week and
to the race-weekend conditions
that all had enjoyed until Sunday.
The 10-lap Superpole race
had Montella out front early on,
until Bulega unrolled the full
extent of his talents to win by
2.752 seconds—from first-time
bimota podium rider, Bassani.
With Alex Lowes third, the
one-year-old BbKRT squad saw
both its riders on the podium
New and already highly popu
-
lar ex-MotoGP runner Miguel
Oliveira (Rockit BMW) found
bad luck at T2 in Superpole and
never set a lap.
He started absolutely last.
In every race. Welcome to
WorldSBK.
As expected, Bulega kicked
onward and upward in the
opener, but behind him the "new
era" of WorldSBK started with a
resounding boom.
First off, Ducati riders swept
the race-one podium places.
Bulega won from Montella (his
first-ever podium in this class,
at a track where he took his first
Kawasaki and Ducati race wins
in the WorldSSP category). New
GoEleven Ducati signing Loren
-
zo Baldassarri scored a career-
best third place.
All four riders out front after
race one were Italian, and all
three and a half of their bikes
were, too, with fourth-placed
ROUND 1 / FEBRUARY 20-22, 2026
PHILLIP ISLAND / VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
ROAD RACE I FIM SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P78
In the Superpole race,
Bulega (11) lit the burners
big time, winning by 2.752
seconds, in a sign of
what was to come for
the rest of the field.
Race two started soaking wet but
gradually dried as the laps wore on.
