Superbike Phillip Island, Test 1: Ducati rocket, Bulega already ahead

At Phillip Island, Superbike fired up the engines in preparation for the opening round of the World Championship. The first real ʼ26 leaderboard shows a Ducati in missile mode. Here’s the first verdict.

Nicolò Bulega was the fastest in the first of four sessions of the final pre-season test, which gives riders and teams the chance to run for eight hours (two per session). It’s a lifeline shakedown to make up for the time lost in January due to bad weather at both Jerez and Portimão. The runner-up’s performance is no surprise: 1'29"451, nine tenths off the race lap record set by Bulega himself two years ago at 1'28"564.

Last year at Phillip Island Nicolò didn’t leave anything to his rivals: three resounding wins, by a margin. It’s entirely logical to find him straight back on top. The new Ducati Panigale V4, with various chassis updates including the adoption of a twin-sided swingarm, is an engine powerhouse: in the top speed list there are four lined up at the front, with Bulega’s #11 clocked at 321.0. Not far behind are the twin V4s of Lecuona, Bautista, and Montella. All the others are at least 4/5 km/h down, BMW included: Miguel Oliveira didn’t go beyond 317.2.

The session took place in ideal weather conditions, with 27 °C air and 32 °C on the asphalt, giving us the first somewhat reliable 2026 Superbike classification. The most surprising figure, still on the subject of Ducati, is that the satellite Panigales are flying too: in second place is Yari Montella (Barni team), and it’s a formidable start for Lorenzo Baldassarri on his debut with Go Eleven: the post-Andrea Iannone era opens at a high level. In the Italian quartet leading the way there’s also Axel Bassani, third with Bimota: going faster than Alex Lowes (sixth) around here is an excellent sign. Even if we should remember it’s only Monday…

The spotlight is obviously on the two heirs to world champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, who left the #1 vacant to move up to MotoGP with Yamaha. Miguel Oliveira, tenth fastest, is one second off Bulega; Danilo Petrucci is two seconds back: the German squad, however, is well behind, and the pair are starting their adventure on a track where BMW has never won and didn’t particularly shine even with the Turkish phenomenon. The first tumble of the Australian week befell Stefano Manzi, the Supersport world champion making his top-class debut. The second and final session of the day ends at 07:40 Italian time.

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