Jake Dixon’s high-speed crash: Honda flew over the track barrier

Honda’s upward trend towards the end of the 2026 Superbike World Championship is evident. Whilst factory riders Jake Dixon and Somkiat Chantra had long been battling it out with the backmarkers from the Yamaha Motoxracing team for the bottom places, a top-15 finish has become the norm since Magny-Cours – and not just thanks to the Englishman; the Thai rider is also regularly finishing in the points.

However, it is Dixon who is providing the highlights. At Cremona, the former Moto2 rider shone in the sprint race with a blistering ride from 17th on the grid into the top nine, and finished sixth in the second race – his best result of the year so far. In the Superpole race at Estoril a week ago, the 30-year-old shone with an eighth-place finish.

However, the Circuito de Jerez seems to suit the CBR1000RR somewhat less. In FP1, Dixon finished 12th, 1.4 seconds off the pace, and in the second practice session, the Superbike rookie could not manage better than 16th after a high-speed crash.

The father of a young daughter crashed after 13 minutes at the notorious Turn 9. His motorbike rolled over several times in the gravel trap, was hurled high into the air and landed behind the airfence. Although Dixon was thoroughly shaken up, he emerged from the crash unscathed.

“To be honest, it wasn’t the Friday we’d hoped for,” groaned the Honda rider. “After the first practice session, we had a lot of work ahead of us. In the afternoon, I was trying to improve my lap time when I had a pretty heavy crash at Turn 9. It all happened quite quickly, but luckily I’m fine, even though I’m obviously not happy about it.”

Topic of the week

Topic of the week: MotoGP’s new schedule proved highly controversial

In 2027, MotoGP will also enter the 850cc era with a new schedule. It was not so much the changes themselves as the way the decisions were reached that caused a stir. A prime example of: ‘Talking helps’.

Read More

TV Program

Tomorrow

Jerez: Samstags-Sessions

FIM Superbike World Championship

17.10.2026 - 09:30

As the Fireblade couldn’t be repaired during the session, Dixon managed only seven laps in FP2.

“Unfortunately, that was the end of my session, so we lost valuable time on the track and didn’t have the chance to try out everything on our list,” said a frustrated Dixon. “We’re struggling to find the pace we need. It’s frustrating because I know we’re capable of more. We’ll sit down this evening, analyse the data and see what we can do to improve the situation. It’s the final round and I definitely want to finish on a positive note.”