Ducati triumphant in BSB as well: Redding returns to winning ways, but Ryde leads

The Bologna-based company is enjoying success not only in WorldSBK; it's also had an excellent start to the 2026 BSB season.

This year Ducati lined up on the grid with a new Panigale V4 R, a bike that encapsulates the pinnacle of racing technology applied to a street-legal sportbike. With aerodynamics developed by Ducati Corse (the same department that handles MotoGP aero) and other major updates (first and foremost the double-sided swingarm), the new Bolognese jewel is proving to be an unequivocal success.

In the Superbike World Championship it has won all fifteen races with Nicolò Bulega and has filled the podium with Iker Lecuona (twelve consecutive second places) and other Ducati riders. A clear superiority. But things are also going decidedly well in the British Superbike Championship.

Kyle Ryde, BSB champion in 2024 and 2025 with the Yamaha R1, immediately found himself at ease on the Panigale V4 R. He scored a hat-trick of wins in the opening round at Oulton Park and then won Race 2 and Race 3 in the recent Donington Park weekend. In Race 1 he finished third, behind the Ducati of winner Scott Redding (Hager PBM team) and Max Cook’s Bimota KB998 Rimini (AJN Steelstock team).

In the overall standings, Ryde (Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions team) leads with 104 points, followed by two more Ducati riders, Redding (85) and the almost 43-year-old Leon Haslam (82). The “best of the rest” is Bradley Ray, fourth on 75 with the McAMS Yamaha R1, followed by Cook on 73. The reigning champion has already pulled ahead, but the British Superbike Championship still has nine rounds to go and, with three races per weekend, a lot can still happen.

Given the current situation, it’s natural to think a Ducati rider could take the title. The last Panigale V4 R to win it was Tommy Bridewell’s in 2023, when he edged Glen Irwin—also on a Bolognese machine—by half a point. Redding has also triumphed with Ducati, winning the BSB title on debut in 2019: his dream is to repeat the feat. Taking his first win with the new Panigale V4 R was certainly a great satisfaction, even if the Hager PBM Racing Team rider had a slightly bitter taste for not managing to win Race 3 at Donington—Ryde beat him by 1.9 seconds at the line. The next round at Knockhill (June 19–21) will be a chance to try to bounce back and close the gap in the standings.