FIM Superbike World Championship
Phillip Island
WorldSBK - Australia
Stunning First Double Podium For BbKRT Riders
At Round 1 of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship, bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team (BbKRT) riders Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes secured a second and third place respectively in the 10-lap Superpole Race at Phillip Island in Australia. Bassani would go on to secure another podium finish in Race 2.
WorldSBK Results
Axel Bassani
“This is my most successful weekend in WorldSBK, 100%. I enjoyed Race 1 a lot yesterday, as I was able to do a lot of overtakes, but today we were able to do what we wanted to do. We are second in the championship, but for me the most important thing is to have a good feeling with the bike, and especially inside the team. At this moment, it is working, so we can continue like this. Today, before Race 2, I was not expecting a race like this in the wet conditions. In winter testing, I did a few laps in the wet, but my feeling wasn’t very positive. I couldn’t test more days due to the test limitations, so in Portimao Xavi Fores found a nice base for wet conditions. That was so useful today. At the start of Race 2, I tried to be clean, consistent, and make no mistakes. In the end, this paid off. We finished with a double P2 today, so we are happy!”
Alex Lowes
“The Superpole Race was good. We had our base setting in Europe from the second half of last winter that I had been really happy with, but it has not been working here. Between Saturday and Sunday we made the biggest change on the bike inside a race weekend. I was quite happy with the Superpole Race because I was on a bike setting that I had never rode before warm-up, for ten minutes. I think I can be quite positive about going back to Europe. We started with a dry bike setting but wet tires in Race 2, and I didn’t have any grip. I was up for it off the start, and had a good start nearly leading on the first lap. Then, I realized that I could not lean the bike like the other guys, so I started going backwards.”
Garrett Gerloff
“The weather was crazy on Sunday. Compared to how we finished yesterday, I’m so much happier with how we finished today. I’m mainly happy with our performance in the Superpole Race. I feel like we made a big step with the bike in general. I was feeling really good riding it, and in a good position for Race 2. I tried my best in the rain, and felt really good initially. Then as the pace dropped, and everybody started going faster, I started having more ‘moments’ on the bike. I tried to keep up, but wasn’t able to. We got a Top 10 finish, so we will take it for now. I’m really looking forward to the next round in Portimao.”
Jeremy Alcoba
“Not the results that we expected after the pre-season, but I think we started well and took some important points. It’s a long season. On Sunday, the race was strange because of the weather. Our strategy was similar to 90% of the riders, and we put in wet tires. The skies looked like they were getting darker, so we couldn’t tell if it would be more wet or dry. Some riders took the risk to put in slick tires, and they made a good choice. We took the risk the other way, like almost all the others. I was fifth or sixth in the race, and feeling quite well, but I went into the box for tires one lap late. The team did a really good job changing the tires, but I was a fraction of a second early passing the exit line, so I was penalized by one tenth and lost one position in the final results. I am disappointed about this, but happy about the result.”
Dominique Aegerter
“We were quite unlucky this weekend. In Race 2, the team made a great decision to start with slick tires. Of course, it’s always a 50/50 chance, and there were some small drops of rain. I think five or six riders decided to go out with slick tires. I was running in fourth place, but one lap from the end we had a technical problem. It’s frustrating not to get any points out of our first weekend here in Australia, but this is racing and these things can happen. We need to keep thinking and stay strong together. We need to believe in ourselves so we can still have a great season together.”
