Cremona, FP1: Bulega crashes, Lecuona 1st – BMW rider Petrucci last!

Late-summer conditions greeted the 22 riders of the Superbike World Championship in Cremona: the air temperature was around 20 degrees, whilst the track temperature was 21 degrees. Following their enforced absence at Magny-Cours, the MGM-Ducati team is back in action. Tarran Mackenzie had been declared unfit to race there, so Loris Baz is taking over the Ducati in Cremona. At Motoxracing-Yamaha, 22-year-old Dutchman Twan Smits is replacing Bahattin Sofuoglu from this weekend onwards.

The pace was fast right from the start of FP1. Iker Lecuona led after the first stint with a time of 1:28.331. By way of comparison, a year ago Nicolo Bulega’s best FP1 time was 1:29.158.

For Barni rider Yari Montella, the Cremona weekend got off to a bumpy start: the Italian headed for the pits after just one lap. He returned to the track and crashed in the final corner at low speed. For Montella, the remaining races are all about securing third place in the riders’ championship. The Italian currently has 46 points, ahead of Alex Lowes (Bimota) and 49 points ahead of Sam Lowes (Marc VDS Ducati).

The start to the weekend also did not go to plan for BMW works rider Danilo Petrucci. The Italian, who won all three races on his Cremona debut two years ago, had to return to the pits early. There was a technical problem with the M1000RR, which caused Petrucci to lose a lot of practice time. The former MotoGP rider was listed in last place during the first half-hour of the session.

With nine minutes to go, MGM stand-in rider Loris Baz caused yellow flags in Turn 2. Twan Smits also crashed in the closing stages of FP1. In the final minute, championship leader Nicolo Bulega went down in Turn 10. On his final attempt, the No. 11 Ducati slid into the gravel trap.

Topic of the week

Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring: track – hit or miss?

The people of Madrid had set their sights high for their city’s first Formula 1 World Championship race since 1981. But have the high expectations for the new Madring mixed-circuit track really been met?

Read More

TV Program

Today

Cremona: 2. Freies Training

FIM Superbike World Championship

25.09.2026 - 14:05

Lecuona’s fastest time remained unchallenged. The Spaniard improved his time once more during the course of FP1 and held on to the top spot with a lap of 1:28.278. Team-mate Bulega was his closest challenger, 0.119 seconds behind. Four more Ducatis followed in the next four positions: Lorenzo Baldassarri was third ahead of Sam Lowes, Yari Montella and Alberto Surra.

The fastest non-Ducati rider was Alex Lowes, who was 0.672 seconds off the fastest time on his Bimota. Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki), Alvaro Bautista (Barni-Ducati) and Axel Bassani (Bimota) rounded off the top 10.

Xavi Vierge was the best Yamaha rider in eleventh place. Jake Dixon finished in twelfth position on his factory Honda. For BMW, the Cremona weekend got off to a mixed start: Miguel Oliveira finished FP1 in 13th place, whilst his team-mate Danilo Petrucci was last. BMW had been aiming for a podium finish ahead of the weekend.