Cremona, Race 1: Two Kawasakis and a Triumph on the podium

Cremona is the seventh of eight race weekends in the new World Sportbike Championship. In Friday’s qualifying, Yamaha rider Carter Thompson ended the pole position run of World Championship leader David Salvador, who had started the first race from pole position four times in a row – but, starting second on the front row, the Kawasaki rider’s starting position is not significantly worse. Triumph rider Fenton Seabright.

At the start of the race at 1.00 pm, the thermometer read a pleasant 23 degrees Celsius. The race was over twelve laps. Atigas won the sprint to the first corner, entering it in the lead ahead of Seabright and Thompson. Things were lively in the opening corners. But it was limited to minor contact. Artigas emerged from the first lap with a lead of two bike lengths over Thompson and Suzuki rider Ferre Fleerackers. Salvador was only in 6th position.

With the fastest lap of the race at 1:36.667 mins, Fleerackers then took the lead, but the field remained bunched up and, on the next straight, the Belgian was pushed back down to third place by Thompson and Artigas.

After three laps, a group of five riders pulled slightly clear. Salvador skilfully stayed out of all the skirmishes within the pack. When the top three tried to pull away, the Spaniard stepped up a gear and fought his way into the leading group.

At the halfway point, Seabright was leading the field, but positions changed with every corner and every breakaway attempt was thwarted. World Championship rivals Salvador and Artigas remained consistently among the front-runners.

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Cremona: Rennen 1

FIM Superbike World Championship

26.09.2026 - 15:00

In the final third of the race, Artigas, Salvador, Harrison Dessoy (Triumph), Seabright and Thompson were still within just 0.8 seconds of one another. By this stage, the Yamaha rider seemed to be struggling the most to keep up with the pace of the leaders.

With three laps to go, Loris Veneman pulled out with engine failure. The Dutchman reacted with quick thinking and steered his Kawasaki quickly off the track.

At the front, Alvaro Fuertes (Kawasaki) had closed the gap and was in the thick of the battle for victory. With perfect timing, Artigas upped the pace and entered the final lap with a lead of a few metres. The Spaniard skilfully fended off every overtaking attempt and secured the win. Dessoy crossed the finish line in second place, whilst Salvador came third. In the overall standings, Artigas closed the gap to Salvador to 21 points.

Yamaha rider Thompson secured another top-five finish. In the end, Suzuki ace Fleerackers could only manage 7th place. Of all places, Aprilia failed to make an impact at its home race: Matteo Vannucci disappointed with a 13th-place finish.

Honda (Taiyo Aksu, 24th) and Kove (Benat Fernandez, 25th) failed to finish in the points.