Misano, Sprint: Ducati star Bulega wins, Oliveira is celebrated by BMW

The 10-lap Superpole race in Misano, which started at 11 a.m., took place in sunshine and already 26 degrees Celsius. The fact that the riders do not have to pay attention to tyre wear and go to the limit every lap is what makes this format so appealing. The fact that Pirelli offers the SCQ qualifying tyre as an option to the SCX soft racing tyre was an additional factor at the seventh meeting of the 2026 Superbike World Championship season.

The name of the sprint race comes from the fact that the result is used to determine the starting grid for the second race. The top nine receive up to twelve championship points and occupy the first nine grid positions, with the remaining positions corresponding to Saturday's Superpole.

The starting grid for the sprint race again corresponded to the Superpole. Ducati took the first two grid positions with Race 1 winner Nicolò Bulega and Iker Lecuona. Bimota ace Alex Lowes completed the front row of the grid. Row two again consisted of the Ducati privateers Yari Montella, Lorenzo Baldassarri and Alberto Surra. Yamaha figurehead Andrea Locatelli started the sprint from eighth position and BMW rider Miguel Oliveira, who was still struggling, was eleventh.

Bulega won the start and entered the first corner in the lead ahead of Lecuona, Montella and Alex Lowes. Locatelli improved to fifth place, but there was a scrap behind him, but fortunately all the riders stayed on their bikes.

The race was already over for Sam Lowes (Ducati) on the second lap after a crash. At the front, Bulega pulled away by 0.8 seconds with the fastest race lap in 1:31.947 minutes. Locatelli had dropped back to 7th place, with Oliveira behind him. At the start of lap 3, another Ducati privateer, Tommy Bridewell, slipped off the track.

At the halfway point, Bulega had pulled away slightly from his team-mate. The two Aruba.it riders led by 2 seconds ahead of Montella, Alex Lowes, Surra and Axel Bassani (Bimota). Oliveira had passed Locatelli to improve to 7th place.

A bitter moment for Alex Lowes and Xavi Vierge on lap 6: The Bimota rider rolled out with a technical problem and the Spaniard from the Yamaha factory team crashed.

Two laps before the end, the podium places were taken by Bulega, Lecuona and Montella. Surra and Bassani fought an entertaining duel for fourth place, while Baldassarri and Locatelli battled for seventh position.

Under pressure from Bassani, Surra made a mistake, which allowed Bassani to take fourth place and BMW ace Oliveira suddenly found himself in a duel with Surra for fifth place.

After ten laps, Bulega crossed the line as the winner, 1.1 seconds ahead of Lecuona and 7.4 seconds ahead of Montella. It was the same finish as in the first race on Saturday. Bassani finished fourth.

On the final lap, Oliveira missed the racing line and lost over a second. As a result, the Portuguese rider dropped back to 7th place behind Baldassarri - nevertheless a strong race from the BMW rider! And because Surra subsequently received a three-second penalty, Baldassarri and Oliveira finished fifth and sixth!

Locatelli brought the best Yamaha home in eighth position. Disappointment for Kawasaki and Honda: Garrett Gerloff on the only ZX-10RR finished 14th, with Somkiat Chantra on the Fireblade right behind him.