some dyno-stalls in Bologna, but
arguably it was the other Italian
family members of bimota (ac-
tually, half-Italian brothers with
a Japanese motive
force inside)
who were the stars of the Latin
metal-heads at Phillip Island.
We all expected the Ducati
riders to show well, but two
bimotas on one podium and two
top-three rides for Bassani? Not
exactly obvious predictions a
month ago.
If this is the post-Razgatlioglu
and post-Rea era, bring it on
as far as the on-track action is
concerned.
For Gerloff, Phillip Island was
a strong weekend as he contin
-
ues his fight as the only Kawa-
saki ZX-10RR rider in the field.
Xa
vi Vierge (Pata Yamaha)
had his second crash in the big
races in as many days. He leaves
pointless after some strong win-
ter showings. In general, it was
an
awful weekend for Yamaha,
with the only high point being
Andrea Locatelli's fifth place. But
even that was one place behind
independent rider Tarran Mack
-
enzie, who had easily his best
WorldSBK
finish in fourth place—
on yet another Ducati.
His podium adjacency was
enthusing news for all private
teams, especially for his MGM
Optical Express team that al
-
most quit last year.
The new WorldSBK
Ducati
was a lightning rod straight
from the hand of Jupiter via
nated by Bulega. In the wet and
with all on wet tires, he beat
the truly resurgent Bassani by
11.336 seconds—an age in
WorldSBK terms of late. Bas
-
sani, in turn, beat Alvaro Bau-
tista (Barni Spark Racing Ducati)
by
6.454 seconds.
It sounds like it was a proces-
sion, but it was mainly a proces-
sion of yellow flags and inci-
dents as riders fell and ran wide
in the tricky conditions.
Baldassarri was so keen that
he
jump-started and did two
long lap penalties as a result.
Sam Lowes fell so hard after
a big highside out of turn four
that he broke his left wrist.
Alex Lowes crashed out of
fifth place with four laps to go.
ROUND 1 / FEBRUARY 20-22, 2026
PHILLIP ISLAND / VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
ROAD RACE I FIM SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P80
Tarran Mackenzie (95) tried to
hold off Alvaro Bautista (19) in
race two but couldn't stop the
two-time WorldSBK Champion
from snatching third place.
