Bulega puts one hand on the WorldSBK crown

Bulega was magnificent again at Magny-Cours, as Remy Gardner rebounded from a Race 1 take-down with a strong Sunday

As the WorldSBK championship got back going again almost eight weeks after the previous round in the UK, it was almost as hot as it had been there in the English East Midlands in July. On Friday at Magny-Cours, at least.

Perfect conditions for very sticky tyres to do their best work around the 4.411km Magny-Cours circuit in the absolute dead centre of France. The SCX and even SCQ versions were used a lot in France.

Hence the lap record got bested by four riders in Superpole, the fastest of them being – of course in his dominant season – Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati) with a 1’34.318.

His ninth straight Superpole win of the year, thank you very much.

In the first race on Saturday, the two Ducati lead riders, Bulega and Iker Lecuona, went at it in very un-team-ate style, but just before half race distance, Tommy Bridewell fell at the very fast and scary downhill at Chateau de Eau, destroying his bike and the airfence it hit, causing a red flag to be thrown.

The restart, over what would be a 12-lap race, but with full points awarded, was again contested by the two top Ducatis, for a time at least.

Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS) got into second for a short period too, as the leaders slugged things out up front.

Lecuona barged him back to third soon after and tried to set about catching Bulega.

The remarkable Nicolo won by 3.118 seconds from Lecuona, with Sam Lowes third, Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) fourth, Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) fifth, and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven Ducati) sixth.

It was a disaster for BMW with Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) crashing out in the red-flagged version and Danilo Petrucci (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) finishing 13th of 14 finishers in the first race. It would carry on in that depressing fashion all weekend.

As returns to action went after a summer break, this first race was on the scale of a costly WW1 adventure over the top, as six riders crashed and some were ruled out even before the racing started.

In the Superpole Race, an early flurry of close riding and determinations saw Bulega have to fend off Lecuona but after running wide into the internal hairpin, Lecuona let his quarry escape, and was even passed by the shadowing Sam Lowes for a time.

Ducati version Lowes should have finished third but crashed out on the final lap, letting Montella take the podium, with Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing Ducati) fourth and Alex Lowes fifth.

Petrucci was 18th and Oliveira 19th. Sheesh…

Race Two looked like it may deliver more of a contest, and even some action, and it did, just not right up front. Bulega was predictably gone away on his own again, and with Lecuona his usual second-place ‘companion’, the fight for the final podium place was more intense.

In fact, inside the podium would-be mob, all hell and several bike bodywork parts were breaking loose.

First Stefano Manzi and Andrea Locatelli, inside the same overall blue Yamaha tent in the GYTR GRT and Pata Maxus Yamaha teams respectively. They clashed in the final sector of the circuit, in the little straight before the final chicane, and both Locatelli and his bike went whizzing down the pitlane entry road. ‘Loka’ stopped before the tyre barrier but his bike smacked in hard, bouncing right back into the very entry of the pitlane.

It was the third Yamaha v Yamaha incident of the weekend, after Gardner feeling he was knocked off by Xavi Vierge on Saturday – and then Gardner making a hard pass on Vierge, who had to take avoiding action, into that final chicane in the Superpole Race.

Baldassarri, in the thick of the fight for the top six places and eventually fourth after Alex Lowes crashed, did the vast majority of the second long race with no left winglet, and a bit of a gaping hole in the side of his Panigale. Alex Lowes fell whole in fifth place.

Surra was in fourth place early on, but came under pressure from eventual third-place man, Yari Montella, and then Baldassarri.

Surra would thus be fifth, and the recent double champion, Bautista, placed sixth.

With a nice set-up on his bike, finally, for the ultimate race in France, Gerloff was top non-Ducati rider home, seventh.

The race was called after lap 19, as Bridewell’s Ducati hit and hurt another airfence, the rider himself, and the track condition in general.

In the championship points, Bulega now has 553 and Lecuona 407. That’s enough of a gap – 146 points – for Bulega to be openly talking about hopefully winning the championship at the next round, on home ground for him, his team, and his true masterpiece of a motorcycle.

26 wins from 27 goes will eventually do that to a man.

The tenth round will be at the small stadium venue of Cremona, in Northern Italy, between 25-27 September.

Stradivarius’ violins came from around there, but modern-day mobile masterpieces are clearly being built a little south of there, Bologna.

The Aussies

Remy Gardner

GYTR GRT Yamaha rider Remy was a reasonable 13th in Superpole, but got knocked off in the red flag section of the first race and never made it back on track for the 12-lap restart. In the sprint race he was a determined eighth, and in Race Two he was tenth. In the points he has 53 points and sits 17th overall. Remy said, “Overall, it was a decent day and we had some good battles, especially in the sprint race. We were able to push hard this morning and recover five places, which also promoted us to eighth on the Race Two grid. We then tried to stay close to the pack, but despite having a good pace, we were missing a little something to stay with the riders ahead.”

Carter Thompson

Seventh in Superpole, Carter was the first Yamaha R7 rider home in Race One, repeating his Superpole qualifying position of seventh. In the second race, he was a strong second, and in the points, with two rounds to go, he is fourth, with 122. (Rumours suggest Thompson is off to Moto3 in 2027, but nothing seems to be absolutely done yet). He stated, after a great Sunday at Magny-Cours, “To finish the weekend with a P2 in Race Two was a great result. It has been a long summer break from racing and was good to be back in action. We went into this round knowing we were a little behind a few of the other teams as we hadn’t tested at this track but wanted to give it our best shot. Unfortunately, in qualifying, I had a crash which meant a bit more work for the team, but they did a great job getting everything fixed and all good to race. Race One, in P7; we tried and gave it everything but were just lacking in a few areas. We worked on some changes and improvements with the team for Race Two and we made a great step. We fought hard till the very end to put it on the podium. We will keep working for the next round, at the team’s home round in Cremona.”

Taiyo Aksu

Finishing 23rd in Superpole, WorldSPB Honda rider Taiyo made it up to 19th in Race One, but then was 25th in the final race. He is 31st in the current points standings, thanks to his single point for a 15th place at Autodrom Most. Taiyo said of his overall Magny-Cours experiences. “Overall it was a disappointing weekend because we had the pace all weekend to be fighting much further up ahead. Unfortunately, there was a very poor Superpole Qualifying session and that compromised us a fair bit. Pace-wise, I think we could have been fighting inside the top 15, for points. But that’s the highs and lows of racing and we still have two more rounds to go.”

NEWS ROUNDUP

New Size Energy Drinks

The maximum fuel flow regulations for WorldSBK reached a balancing checkpoint after Donington, and there were some changes incoming for Magny-Cours. Both BMW and Honda received +0.5kg/h increases, but to the surprise of many, the Bimotas received a further reduction of 0.5kg/h.

The drop was mystifying to many because only the bimota and BMW have been able to beat any Ducati to the podium this year, meaning this drop for one of those two manufacturers will further help the legions of Ducati riders to continue what has been a near-domination so far in 2026.

Revolving Blue Doors

There were some Yamaha tech personnel changes recently, in the form of a Crew Chief swap for Andrea Locatelli. He now has Emanuele Martinelli in charge. ‘Loka’s’ outgoing Crew Chief, Giulio Nava, remains within the overall Yamaha house, as a performance analyst, working across the two main Yamaha teams.

Extended Injury Time

Taz Mackenzie (Optical Express MGM Ducati) having suffered significant injuries to his shoulder and leg in a strange crash under braking at Donington eight weeks ago, was declared not fit to race at Magny-Cours. He still has problems with his leg healing up completely after the big Donington crash, and the doctors said no to him racing at this stage. There was no replacement at this round and he hopes to be fit for Cremona. The WorldSBK field was reduced all the more during race weekend when Bahattin Sofuoglu was ruled out after a second crash and resultant concussion, the final one in Friday’s FP2.

MotoGP rider influx

Official announcements predated the Magny-Cours round to some degree, but there are expected to be many more after this round. Extant BMW podium force Miguel Oliveira remains with the ROKiT BMW Motorrad squad for possibly three years, but one-year deal rider Danilo Petrucci will leave the factory set-up. BMW is, apparently, looking at a way to keep him on a M1000RR in some other series. By the weekend, he seemed to be hinting at possible retirement. His replacement is most likely to be Brad Binder on what will be a new homologation of BMW. Jack Miller should be on a Yamaha in WorldSBK, alongside Locatelli, with this paddock swap-over story having been doing the rounds for a long time.

Frankie Morbidelli should join Iker Lecuona in the official Ducati team.

Xavi Vierge is on the way out at Yamaha and should line up alongside Yari Montella in the seemingly factory-adjacent Barni Spark Racing Ducati team, even though they are, in reality, an Independent Team. Alvaro Bautista is on the way out of WorldSBK in general, even though he wants to keep racing, even if there has been no announcement yet.

Should all those aforementioned MotoGP class exports arrive as outlined above, and even after the exit of Petrucci and Bautista, there would be six or seven recent ex-MotoGP class riders in the WorldSBK paddock in 2027 – with Remy Gardner, Miguel Oliveira, Iker Lecuona and Somkiat Chantra already here.

If that expected ex-GP rider list for WorldSBK 2027 is extended to also include what can fairly be called career Moto2/Moto3 riders of the recent past, there will be only five or six WorldSBK riders who are NOT products of the MotoGP paddock in the 2027 season.

The Dirty Dozen

The supposed 12-round WorldSBK calendar for 2027 is still a weird work in progress, as we hang on to hear the definite MotoGP calendar. If you believe the rumours, then we could be heading not only to China (Ningbo) but Valencia too. Or according to some other sources, Sepang and Barber Motorsports Park (in Alabama, USA). But the clever money seemed to be on the Chinese round (at the end of the year) and Valencia replacing Jerez as the Andalusian track undergoes months of renovation next year.

Barber is interested but has not committed yet, while Sepang has just been able to make the deal so far, according to some reports.

The venues with contracts – for next year at least – are Phillip Island, Portimao, Assen, Most, Aragon, Misano, Donington, Magny-Cours, Cremona, Estoril, and Balaton.

Hungaroring, maybe not Balaton Park, could host that race in 2027, as the Hungaroring is the new promoter of Balaton, too.