Superbike is back: Could Bulega be crowned champion already at Magny-Cours? The weekend TV and streaming schedule

The long break is coming to an end, WorldSBK restarts in France: Bulega wants to continue his march toward the title. Here is the weekend schedule.

Had you forgotten about the Superbike World Championship? Maybe so, given that the last race was held on July 12 at Donington Park Circuit and then a break began that will only end this weekend with the ninth round of the 2026 calendar, taking place at Magny-Cours, France (September 4–6).

Of course, during the break the teams didn’t just sit and watch. Some even carried out tests to make sure they’re ready for the season restart. BMW and Honda ran both at Magny-Cours and Estoril, while the Elf Marc VDS team tested only in France, Bimota at Navarra, and Kawasaki at Cremona Circuit.

It’s inevitable to consider Nicolò Bulega the big favorite for this WorldSBK round: he has won 23 of the 24 races held in 2026 and leads the overall standings with a 133-point advantage over teammate Iker Lecuona, who beat him for the first time in Race 1 at Donington Park.

Mathematically, the Italian rider could clinch the world title already in France: he would need to gain 53 points and end the weekend with a 186-point margin over the Spaniard. A complicated mission—it would take a real collapse from Lecuona, who only needs to collect 10 points to postpone Bulega’s celebration.

The Panigale V4 R is the best bike on the grid and, in addition to the factory Aruba Ducati riders, the independent teams’ riders also have the potential to achieve good results at Magny-Cours. Yari Montella of the Barni Spark Racing Team is third in the Superbike standings and will aim to extend his lead over the chasers. The first of them is Alex Lowes of Bimota, fourth and 29 points back. We need to see whether the KB998 Rimini will be competitive in France; it was last year: the British rider actually took three third places over the weekend.

Bimota’s goal will be to get back to fighting for the podium, something BMW will also try to do. Miguel Oliveira and Danilo Petrucci had the chance to ride at Magny-Cours in recent weeks and will have some useful data to leverage to be competitive with their M 1000 RRs. The last Superbike round at Donington Park was a disaster; there’s a strong desire for redemption in the garage.

Honda also tested in France and will aim to close the gap to the class leaders, although it’s hard to expect a breakout from rookies Somkiat Chantra and Jake Dixon. It’s difficult to predict Yamaha’s potential, disappointing in this 2026 Superbike World Championship. As for Kawasaki, Garrett Gerloff is targeting a top-10 finish in every race.

The Superbike round in France will be broadcast live on TV by Sky Sport MotoGP (channel 208). For live streaming, the Sky Go and NOW services are available. This weekend, the free-to-air channel TV8 will not broadcast the production-derived world championship races live, due to the F1 Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Remember that Supersport and Sportbike will also race at Magny-Cours. Below are the weekend’s TV-streaming times.

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