Cremona, Qualifying: First Yamaha pole in the Sportbike category

The race weekend at the Cremona Circuit is the seventh round of the new 2026 Sportbike World Championship, with only the season finale at Jerez, from 16 to 18 October, remaining. The championship leader is Spaniard David Salvador (Kawasaki), who has already signed a deal to move up to the 2027 Supersport World Championship. Salvador holds a 30-point lead over his team-mate Xavi Artigas.

Having last competed at Assen, Phillip Tonn from Thuringia will not be returning this year – at least that is the assumption of his Kove team. His replacement is Hugo De Cancellis, who already stood in for the 21-year-old at Magny-Cours. Guest rider Manuel Rocca brings an additional Triumph to the starting grid.

In the morning’s free practice session, Carter Thompson (Yamaha) set a clear fastest time of 1:36.302 minutes, almost 0.4 seconds ahead of Salvador and Alvaro Fuertes (Kawasaki). However, the top 13 were all within just one second of each other. Aprilia, Triumph and Suzuki had riders in the top six – Kove and Honda were not even in the top 15.

The Superpole at 2.10 pm took place in summery conditions. Mirko Gennai (Yamaha) crashed on his very first flying lap. It took what felt like an eternity to recover his Yamaha, which also ruined the chances of other riders setting a fast time. Thompson set the first decent lap time of 1:36.849 minutes – and that remained the fastest for the first ten minutes.

Halfway through the 25-minute session, Salvador set a new fastest time of 1:35.971. At that point, the Spaniard was almost 0.9 seconds ahead of Thompson and Aprilia rider Matteo Vannucci. Meanwhile, Artigas was a worryingly long way back in 14th place.

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Cremona: Der Samstag

FIM Superbike World Championship

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With five minutes to go, Salvador remained the only rider with a lap time under 1:36, but the Kawasaki rider’s lead was shrinking significantly. Thompson was just 0.075 seconds behind; the third-placed rider, Fenton Seabright (Triumph), was 0.183 seconds adrift. Meanwhile, Artigas (4th) also managed a fast lap.

In the final minutes, sector best times flashed up on the timing monitor with increasing frequency. With a time of 1:35.746, Thompson finally set the battle for pole position alight. Yellow flags following a crash by Thomas Benetti (Aprilia) at Turn 8 came at the worst possible moment. In the end, there was only time for one more fast lap, for which several groups formed.

But nothing changed at the top: Thompson thus secured Yamaha’s first pole position in the Sportbike category. Salvador and Seabright complete the front row. Ferre Fleerackers secured the best Suzuki result in eighth on the grid. Vannucci, the best-placed Aprilia rider, dropped back to twelfth position in the closing stages.

300cc World Champion Benat Fernandez, riding the underpowered Kove, could not manage better than 25th place. Taiyo Akso, on the sole Honda, finished 27th.