The Superbike circus arrived at Donington Park under a veil of sadness.
Rest in peace, Marc van der Straaten.
WCR:
We have arrived at the stage of the women’s Championship where we start talking about ‘match points’ and the math behind potentially winning the title.
RACE 1
Before we get into the total plot-twister of a race, allow us to lay out the penalties racked up pre-race.
Jones and Sanchez were each bumped six spots backwards on the grid after doing a little too much dawdling.
Ruiz was sent all the way to the back for not heeding the Yellow Flags.
And Vieillard started the race with a Long Lap Penalty to her name.
The Saturday race ended prematurely for Relph when she went off at just the first turn, doing her best waterslide-pose during her slide into – and across – the gravel.
In what could end up being one of the greatest plot-twists in the 2026 WCR season, Neila crashed at Turn Seven on the first lap, after her bike got a jumpscare (and maybe a gentle brush) from Herrera as they were vying for position and inevitably ended up two abreast going into the turn.
While Herrera continued her race, blissfully unaware that Neila had taken a tumble, the latter sobbed into the wall behind the graveltrap, before showing exactly how she felt about the incident. She threw two middle fingers at the track.
Herrera was soon hit with a Double Long Lap Penalty, though the gap between her and the rest of the pack was so vast, she managed to take both Long Laps without losing the lead.
Ramos was also handed a Double Long Lapper at around the same time, hers being for jumping the start. She took both, and very rapidly recovered second position.
Apart from an entertaining scuffle for third place on the final lap, nothing much else happened worth reporting.
Herrera easily claimed victory, with Ramos taking a similarly easy second, while Sarapuech won the fight for third.
With the Race One win under her belt, and Neila not scoring at all, Herrera was now in a position where she merely had to outscore her rival by one point in Race Two in order to take the Championship.
RACE 2
We’ll be honest: the majority of the action came after the checkered flag had dropped in Race Two.
Following her Race One crash, Neila had to fight her way back through the pack – and that is exactly what she set about doing, inserting herself into the podium battle by Lap Six.
After many a lap without any grand scandals, a three-way fight for the top spot ensued.
Bondi crashed on the final lap, at Turn Eleven.
As the leading trio entered Turn Six for the last time, Ramos and Herrera found themselves in a carbon copy of the crash in Race One which had ruled Neila out.
Ramos, going along on the outside of a somewhat wide Herrera, went rocketing across the grass after the two riders made the gentlest of contact.
The incident was immediately put under investigation, the stewards facing a difficult ruling.
As the riders crossed the finish line, and Herrera took the win over Neila, who was in second place, and Ponziani in third, the results were still being investigated.
Regardless, Herrera clearly did not know of the investigations, and went on to celebrate her second WCR Championship title. There were shirts. There was a gilded helmet. Her Yamaha sported a stuck-on golden number one as she eventually began making her way to Parc Fermé, blissfully unaware of the utter shock that awaited her.
Because, after reviewing the incident over and over again, Herrera was hit with a six-second time penalty post-race, dropping her into second place, and thus promoting Neila into the winning spot.
As Herrera entered Parc Fermé, she immediately made her confusion known when she was corralled into the number two slot instead of the winning one.
Her team could be heard telling her to keep calm, before they began explaining to her the penalty, and for what it was.
An obviously disappointed Herrera began stripping off the winner’s shirt, and Ramos even showed up to have a calm chat about the incident.
Since Neila was now our race winner, the title battle would be taken to the final round in a few weeks.
SPB:
The Sportbike crowd took their summer break a little earlier than the rest.
SSP:
RACE 1
Giombini and Booth-Amos both started the race six positions, and Jespersen three positions, lower than they’d qualified, all three of them having been caught dawdling in the Superpole session.
The current BSB Championship leader had decided to Wildcard for the weekend.
During the opening lap, while we were watching the front pack navigating through Turns Seven and Eight, Caricasulo went ploughing into the gravel in the background, creating a pebble-tsunami at the edge of Turn Seven.
Taccini was apparently a little over-eager off the line, which earned him a Double Long Lap Penalty.
On Lap Five, Ramirez parked his bike trackside, sauntering off to find something to drink. The official statement cited a ‘technical problem’ as the reason for him stopping mid-race.
At around half race distance, Booth-Amos caught up with the leading riders, and soon wrestled the lead out of the hands of the then-leading Oncu. Once he had the lead, Tom bolted.
Masià’s race ended with a Turn Twelve crash during the thirteenth lap.
At the start of Lap Fourteen, Mahendra was, for all intents and purposes, severed from his seat through Turn One. He looked like a spider trying to cling to a twig in a windstorm. Somehow, he managed to get back in the seat and continue racing like nothing had happened.
Booth-Amos claimed the win, an apt way to celebrate one-hundred race starts, doing so in front of his home crowd, to boot.
Second place went to Arenas, while Alcoba took third.
RACE 2
As Race Two commenced on Sunday, Whatley was seen taking a rather unconventional route across the vast grassy fields that surrounded large parts of the track. We were soon informed that the reason for his erratic behaviour was a technical problem, and not a caffeine overdose.
On Lap Thirteen, Garzó was mugged, and his bike taken from him by a pack of feral marshals at Turn Eleven.
The Technical Gemlin, having successfully eliminated Whatley, chose De Rosa as its next victim, infecting his bike on Lap Five.
While competing in the leading battles on Lap Ten, Öncü collided with Booth-Amos in Turn Eleven, sideswiping his rival and costing them both some positions. Miraculously, neither of them crashed.
Öncü was later ordered to drop a position for his misdemeanour.
During Lap Eleven, Rossi took a detour of his own.
Moments later, Taccini mysteriously crashed out at Turn Eleven.
Cretaro crashed at the fourth turn on Lap Seventeen, though it wasn’t given much attention.
One lap (and a few corners) later, Casadei tumbled from the race at Turn Eleven.
Contact and all regardless, Booth-Amos claimed the victory, making it a double in front of his home crowd.
Arenas took second, and Masià claimed a close third.
SBK:
Before we get into the action: congratulations, Lecuona, on becoming a girl-dad!
Surra was out of action due to a right shoulder injury; MacKenzie ruled himself out of the races by means of a crash in FP2 that left him concussed, and multiple bones fractured throughout his body.
On the flipside, we saw Rea Wildcarding again. Retirement not exciting enough, Jonny?
RACE 1
While waiting for the race to commence, the roaming cameras caught a glimpse of a toppie with an epically fluffy white beard, the wind blowing it in two perfect sections around his neck. Gives a whole different meaning to ‘neckbeard’.
Gerloff lined up on the WorldSBK grid for the two-hundred-and-twentieth time this Saturday. Well done, Garrett.
As usual, it was an Aruba.it Ducati duel at the front right from the start.
But this time, it was a little different: Lecuona was leading, while keeping Bulega at bay.
For most of the twenty-three laps, not much happened, not that we would’ve noticed since, for multiple laps at a time, everyone seemed to forget there were more than two motorcycles circling the track. It got quite annoying, honestly.
By the end of Lap Twenty, Rea retired to the pits.
As the final three laps rolled in, Bulega finally began clawing at Lecuona, the teammates fighting tooth and nail for the lead, all the while aging their team back in the pits about ten years instantly.
In the end, it was Lecuona who crossed the line first, ending Bulega’s twenty-five race winning streak and claiming his maiden WorldSBK win. Who said becoming a father made you slower?
Bulega found himself in an unfamiliar second place, while Montella claimed a very lonely third.
SUPERPOLE RACE
Sorry, but… that tar looked good enough to lick in that drone fly-over towards the grid.
Lecuona started the Superpole Race exactly as he had Race One, taking the lead and defending it admirably. Alas, when he leaned into Turn Twelve on the second lap, his tyres gave way beneath him, sending him skidding onto the grass.
Though he did remount seventy-five percent of his Ducati (the remaining twenty-five percent scattered across the grass) and continued racing for a few more laps, his hopes of a second victory were all but dead. By the end of Lap Seven, he decided to call it a day, retiring to the pits.
It took Bulega until Lap Five to take the lead.
On Lap Six, Oliveira took an abrupt detour all the way up to the wall beyond Turn Eight’s graveltrap – had he spotted a rare Pokémon perched atop the wall?
Bulega claimed his first victory at Donington Park, which now meant he’d completed his Bingo Book, having won a race at every single venue on the current WorldSBK calendar.
Montella finished second, and third place went the way of Sam Lowes.
Even with Lecuona crashing, Aruba.it had scored enough points to officially claim the 2026 Team Champions trophy. Well done!
RACE 2
It was good to see Lecuona laughing at the replays of his folly during the Superpole Race.
On the third lap, Sofuoğlu and Chantra went AWOL at Turn Eleven, only their motorcycles seen being lifted out of the gravel by a group of marshals.
While in the throes of a lovely battle on Lap Seven, Bridewell’s Ducati unexpectedly developed a nasty, smoking cough, forcing him to coast off onto the grass, parking his ailing machine well out of the way.
Lots of metronomic laps went by.
At the end of Lap Eight, Lecuona finally passed Montella in order to take second place, after his crash had seen him start the race from tenth.
Bulega claimed the victory – massive surprise – while second and third went to Lecuona and Montella respectively. This felt awfully familiar…
Mere hours after Aruba.it claimed the Team Championship, Ducati became the official holders of the title of Constructors World Champions. Good job, everyone.
We enter the summer break, hoping for more Championship drama across the classes when we return.
~ Karr
