Estoril: Yamaha on pole – Dominique Aegerter (Kawasaki) stronger than he has been for a long time

In the morning’s free practice session, Can Öncü (Yamaha) set the fastest lap of 1:39.084 at the Circuito do Estoril, finishing 0.3 seconds ahead of his team-mate Lucas Mahias and Philipp Öttl (Ducati). Cremona double winner Jeremy Alcoba (Kawasaki) was fifth. Championship leader Albert Arenas (Yamaha) was getting to grips with the circuit and had to settle for the tenth-fastest time.

As with the second free practice session in the Superbike category, the Superpole for the Supersport World Championship took place in glorious late-summer weather. As the middleweight category has only one free practice session, the riders spent most of the 40-minute session fine-tuning their bikes. Qualifying got underway at 4 pm local time in pleasant conditions of 25 degrees Celsius.

At first, the riders were unable to match the fast lap times set that morning. After ten minutes, Matteo Ferrari (Ducati) topped the timesheet with a lap of 1:39.610. However, this meant the Italian was faster than last year’s lap record of 1:39.847 set by Roberto Garcia (Yamaha). Ironically, it was the usually steady Valentin Debise who caused the first crash of the session. The World Championship runner-up slipped harmlessly and rode his ZX Moto back to the pits himself.

Then it was Öncü again who set a new benchmark for the competition with a time of 1:39.185. The Turkish rider thus came very close to Dominique Aegerter’s pole record from 2022, which the Swiss rider had set at the time on a Yamaha R6 in 1:39.046 mins.

At the halfway stage, Öncü was still in the lead, but Domi Aegerter was a surprise second – it’s rare to see the Swiss rider so far up the order on a Kawasaki! Shortly afterwards, Andreas Kofler (Yamaha) crashed; he was in 32nd position, 2.7 seconds off the fastest time. Öttl was 0.8 seconds off the pace and in twelfth place.

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Estoril: Der Samstag

FIM Superbike World Championship

10.10.2026 - 10:35

With 17 minutes remaining, Öncü sprinted across the line in 1:39.011 – a new record! Other riders were also attempting fast laps at this point, and Aegerter was pushed down to sixth place. Arenas improved significantly with a time of 1:39.364 minutes and provisionally moved up to fourth place.

With ten minutes to go, the top three were separated by just 0.1 seconds. Most riders headed for the pit lane to have a new tyre fitted for their final attempt. Öncü was the first to do so, but separate crashes involving Yuki Okamoto, Andrea Giombini (MV Agusta) and Roberto Garcia (Yamaha) resulted in yellow flags and the lap times being disallowed. No sooner had the gravel traps been cleared than Simon Jespersen (Ducati) and Raffaele De Rosa caused the next crashes.

Only a few riders managed to get a clear lap: one of them was Oli Bayliss (Triumph) in 4th place and Aegerter in 8th – the Swiss rider’s second-best grid position this year after Assen! Philipp Öttl, on the other hand, was unlucky and qualified in 15th place.

The front row remained unchanged with Öncü, Mahias and Booth-Amos. World Championship leader Arenas will start ninth in the first race on Saturday afternoon.