Yari Montella (Ducati) in a battle with the Lowes twins: Sam already beaten

What a turnaround for Yari Montella. As a rookie, the Italian finished the 2025 Superbike World Championship in a distant 18th place after a dozen race crashes – and this year, at the penultimate round of the season at the Circuito do Estoril, he clinched the title of best independent rider ahead of schedule!

Montella’s rival was his higher-ranked Ducati team-mate Sam Lowes – but in the end it was a clear-cut victory for the Barni rider, even though he didn’t have his best weekend in Portugal, finishing 8th, 13th and 4th. In the first race, he lost positions following contact with Lorenzo Baldassarri (Ducati), and in a similar incident with Alex Lowes (Bimota) during the Superpole race, he was handed a long-lap penalty.

“I didn’t understand the penalty and I think it was simply a racing incident,” said the Ducati rider in a small press briefing. “I started from sixth on the grid, was riding on the outside line and saw Alex next to me – I was just defending my position! But I didn’t see that Oliveira was overtaking Alex on the inside. As he closed in on Alex, Alex straightened his bike up, and we made contact. For me, it was normal contact, just like between Balda and me on Saturday. Race control decided to impose a long-lap penalty on me, and I served it. There are some things we can’t control, but it was a shame because we had the chance of a good race.”

Finishing fourth in the second main race, Montella missed out on the podium by 2 seconds, having made up seven places in the process.

“In the closing stages, I started having problems with the front tyre,” said the Italian, frustrated. “At one point, I really started to believe I could make it onto the podium, so I tried to manage the race and conserve the tyres. In the last two or three laps, I couldn’t push any harder to fight for a podium place. Now we’re heading to Jerez with greater composure and confidence. We’re ready to make the most of our opportunity.”

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The 26-year-old impressed in 2026 with 14 podium finishes and stands a good chance of finishing the season in third place in the World Championship. His final rival is, of all people, Alex Lowes, who is, however, 53 points behind Montella.

“I’m completely relaxed now; we’ve talked a lot about this title, and in the end we’ve done it,” said Montella, commenting on winning the Independent classification. “I’m really proud of the work done by my team and my personal support network – my personal trainer and my psychologist. We’ve taken a big step forward compared to last year. A year ago we were 18th in the World Championship, and this year we’re fighting for third place. We need to keep fighting like this and continue to battle for wins and for third place in the overall standings.”