News

The 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is officially underway after an explosive start to the season at Australia’s Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. Many questions were circulating about this season’s grid ahead of the weekend’s start to racing action on account of rainy weather ruling out a majority of the testing days. Testing will take place on Friday and Saturday, March 14^th and 15^th, featuring a morning session from 9:00-13:00, an hour break, then returning from 14:00 to 17:00 local time time (UTC +0:00)

Ahead of the Pirelli Portuguese Round the 28^th-30^th of March, the WorldSBK grid will enjoy a two days of testing to dial in their setups or to simply reaccustom themselves with the track. For some, the test will provide an opportunity to go back to the drawing board to try to right the ship after a disappointing Australian Round; for others, the testing will be an opportunity to keep the ball rolling and capitalise on a successful trip down under.

A NEW FACE FOR YAMAHA: MotoGP test rider Augusto Fernandez will join ‘Loka’ with Pata Maxus Yamaha

Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) flew back to Europe as the top-scoring Yamaha rider, and while not quite as successful as his last outing to Phillip Island, Loka sits in 6^th in the Riders’ Championship. Joining him in representing Pata Maxus Yamaha, Augusto Fernandez will compete as a substitute rider for the injured Jonathan Rea. Fernandez will be making his WorldSBK debut after winning the 2022 Moto2™ championship and more recently in 2024 racing with Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing in MotoGP™. Dominique Aegerter was a paragon of consistency in Australia, netting three P12 finishes and will look to have more consistent top 10 finishes as the season. With a pair of DNF’s in for a technical problem in Race 1 and a crash in Turn 1 of Race 2, Remy Gardner’s homecoming round was less than he had hoped, however a P9 finish in the Superpole session and a P10 finish in the Superpole Race are a silver lining for the Aussie rider. In Australia he, like most the grid will look to make up for the rain-affected tests in January and continue to take his package forward.

DUCATI DOMINATION DOWN UNDER: Nicolo Bulega and the rest of the grid’s Ducatis will look to keep the ball rolling

Ducati jumped out to a commanding lead in the Manufacturers’ Championship with 62 points, 40 points ahead of BMW and Yamaha tied with 22 points; leading that charge was Nicolo Bulega, (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) who took home a hat-trick of P1’s on the weekend. His rapid pace in Australia is nothing new, as he has done well there in seasons past, but Portimao will prove an opportunity for him to continue fine-tuning his setup, as according to him, replicating Australia’s results will be no easy task. His teammate, Alvaro Bautista will be on a similar page, looking to fine tune his package to maintain his dual-podium Australian form.

Andrea Iannone (Team Pata Go Eleven) sits a hair behind Bautista in third in the Riders’ Championship, not to be outdone by the Spaniard, he landed a pair of podiums of his own. The main task for him and the rest of Australia’s top performers will be trying to find more speed in order to try catch up with Bulega, who at the moment is the man to beat. Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO Racing) showed glimpses of his 2020 form in Australia, landing a pair of P4s, and Portimao will provide an opportunity to continue re-acclimating to his Ducati machinery; a problem for his competitors as he appears to be getting faster the longer he spends on the bike.

Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) this season has a new rival in the form of Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO), who joins Andrea Iannone in what seems to be a three-horse race in for who will be the Top Independent rider. For the test, ‘Petrux’ will be focusing on cornering and tinkering with the engine braking setup in order to try to sort out the finer details of the bike.  Representing Barni Spark Racing Team, Petrucci is now joined by rookie Yari Montella, who scored his first career WorldSBK top 10 placement in Australia, and going into Portimao’s test, the Italian rookie wants to continue getting accustomed to his Panigale V4R in order to close the gap between him and the top riders. Sam Lowes is coming into Portimao testing hot off his best-ever P5 result in Australia’s Tissot Superpole Race. Among the things on his Portimao testing regimen, Lowes wants to work on his cornering in faster corners to carry as much momentum as possible through Portimao’s up-and-down layout.

BMW BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD: Reigning champions look to bounce back from lackluster Australian Round

Defending Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) had a rough start to his WorldSBK season Down Under, it has never been a track that he has dominated, however his sole P2 finish left ‘El Turco’ very frustrated by the end of the weekend. His BMW factory team have been having issues with their newly-homologated 2025 M1000 RR, so the test will give him, teammate Michael van der Mark, and a pair test riders will give a much-needed opportunity to iron out some of the wrinkles in their setup. For his part, Michael van der Mark similarly struggled, however the opportunity to fix the issues they’ve been having comes at a great time for van der Mark as he will hope to have his bike ready to go ahead of a circuit where he has had success in the past, like in 2021’s Tissot Superpole Race.

BIMOTA CONSISTENT IN DEBUT: Lowes, Bassani and their KB998 Rimini look to build off of strong team debut performance Down Under

Bimota’s WorldSBK racing project is back and brought home results to be proud from Australia. Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) led the pair from P9 with Axel Bassani immediately behind him in P10. At the test, Lowes commented on how he wanted to work on his confidence on the bike, hoping to be more aggressive with braking later on corner entries. For Bassani, his work will lie on managing the back end of the bike and hoping to improve his setup’s speed on the straights.

VIERGE LEADS HONDA BACK TO EUROPE: Lecuona to miss Portimao’s testing with injury

Team Honda HRC find themselves again without Iker Lecuona after the Spanish rider suffered a broken bone and awaits further diagnosis to determine if he will be able to race at Portimao. His teammate, Xavi Vierge has been picking up the slack, perhaps not as fast as the pace he was showing in testing in the preseason however he compensated for that with his consistency, earning a trio of P11 finishes. While Lecuona recovers, Tetsuta Nagashima will ride in his stead. Tarran Mackenzie represented PETRONAS MIE Honda Racing Team, whose weekend ended on a tough note as his Race 2 concluded early with a Turn 6 crash. Zaqhwan Zaidi (PETRONAS MIE Honda Racing Team) will look to continue to settle into his WorldSBK surroundings and gain valuable track time to get up to speed.

Stay up to date via WorldSBK.com with live timing, end of day reports, and reaction interviews across both days to see how your favorite riders fare!

Catch the upcoming rollercoaster action in Round 2 at Portimao with the WorldSBK Videopass!