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The 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship got underway at the renowned Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit not long ago, and the season-opening round provided plenty of answers to questions that were lingering from pre-season. The Australian Round is unique due to the challenging demand placed on all aspects of the rider-team-bike combination, but it’s still able to give us some answers to key questions.

BAUTISTA AND BULEGA MAKE STEPS: a strong weekend for the duo…

It looks as if though both Aruba.it Racing – Ducati riders have made steps in 2025. For Alvaro Bautista, he was closer to the front in Tissot Superpole thanks to a P4 grid slot – only his second top-four Superpole result since the start of the 2024 season (the other was his P3 at Aragon). It hampered his title chances last year, but it seems some of the problem has been solved, although he’s still a bit down on his 2022 and 2023 performances. He also proved race craft is no issue, claiming P3 in Race 1 before a mistake and a crash in the Tissot Superpole Race left him 11^th on the Race 2 grid. His P11 starting position was no bother for the #19, who came through to take P2 and was the fastest rider on track at times. As for teammate Nicolo Bulega, he’s added more consistency to his arsenal for this year; already seen towards the end of his rookie season, ‘Bulegas’ was simply unbeatable Down Under as he topped every session and won every race. He was one of only three riders to lap in the 1’28s during the weekend, but he did so more often than anyone else; Bautista did so once, as did Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). Speaking of…

RAZGATLIOGLU'S DOWNBEAT DEMEANOUR: work to do at BMW

Razgatlioglu headed into the 2025 season with the #1 plate and one of the pre-season favourites, but the latter may be in question after Australia. He crashed both in the Official Test and Friday Practice and was already carrying a finger injury from a winter training crash, before battling for P2 in Race 1, but this was the highlight for ‘El Turco’. A mistake at Turn 4 in the Superpole Race meant he finished in 13^th, before retiring with a technical issue in Race 2. He visibly showed his frustrations as he smashed his windshield as he brought his bike into the pits and voiced his dismay in various interviews across the whole week in Australia. BMW lost their superconcessions for 2025 after homologating a new bike and it appears they’re on the back foot in the early stages of the season. Something to give them hope, though, is that the reigning Champion scored more points in this year’s season-opener (20) than last year (18), when he went on to win the title, plus Phillip Island has never been Razgatlioglu’s strongest track with just one win there.

BIMOTA CLOSE… BUT WORK TO DO IN THE HEAT: consistent results for the Italian brand

Bimota showed strong pace throughout the winter with Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) and teammate Axel Bassani, often lapping towards the top of the timesheets. That changed in Australia as, while they were still quick, they were at the lower end of the top ten rather than towards the top. Australia was the first time the Bimota KB998 Rimini had been pushed in hot conditions, so Phillip Island will be beneficial to the team in the long run. As for the riders, between them they took six top-ten finishes. While Bassani was a lot closer to the #22 in Superpole than in 2024; although he took 14^th on the grid, he was just a tenth behind Lowes and a second away from Bulega’s pole time.

REDDING (ALMOST) BACK TO HIS BEST: straight into podium contention

It would’ve been understandable if Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO Racing) took a while to return to a consistent top-five challenger as he re-adapted back to the Panigale V4 R after three years with BMW, but he wasted no time in Australia. He took fifth, fourth and fourth in the three races, the first time he’d taken three top-five results in a round since Donington in 2022. While he narrowly missed out on a rostrum return, the quick return to the sharp end will please the #45 and his Ducati-powered team – after all, it was their first race with Ducati machinery in WorldSBK too, and they were also off to a flying start. Of course, Redding was on the rostrum three times in Australia on his Ducati debut so there’s still a bit to find, but it’s an encouraging start for the Brit after three challenging seasons.

MONTELLA LEADS ROOKIE CHARGE: impressive showing from the #5 as three score points

Three rookies raced in Australia with Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) comfortably leading the trio, although he is a bit of a Phillip Island specialist on production-based machinery. He came into the round on the back of strong testing pace and converted that into two scoring finishes, although a Race 1 crash did blot his copybook slightly. Ryan Vickers (Motocorsa Racing) also scored points but had a more troubled weekend, with several crashes in practice but taking points in both Race 1 and Race 2. Bahattin Sofuoglu (Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) scored one point during his debut weekend, which he headed into after undergoing shoulder surgery following a crash at Portimao in January.

WORK STILL TO DO: Gerloff’s tough debut, Yamaha, and Honda on the back foot?

Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) had a lot of fanfare heading into Australia but it wasn’t an easy round for the #31, lapping consistently off the pace and unable to fight at the front as perhaps had been expected. His weekend was hampered when he was wiped out in the Superpole Race by Honda HRC’s Tetsuta Nagashima, with the Japanese rider given a Long Lap Penalty. Speaking of Honda, they were quicker than the 2024 Australian Round and on the verge of the top ten, but perhaps a little lower down than they would’ve expected after a strong showing in pre-season, although losing Iker Lecuona (Honda HRC) through injury on Friday definitely didn’t help even with teammate Xavi Vierge's strong pace throughout the winter. It was similar at Yamaha too, with Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) almost permanently P7 or P8 in races; but, like Honda, they were missing a rider through injury with Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) set to miss Portimao too. Down the grid, Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) will be hoping his home round curse ends soon; two DNFs in Race 1 and Race 2 mean he’s retired from four of his nine races at Phillip Island.

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