First Supersport podium: Kawasaki has now reached the 2025 level

Kawasaki was tipped to be significantly stronger for the 2026 Supersport World Championship, as this is the second year of the new ZX-6R 636, on which Jeremy Alcoba secured two podium finishes towards the end of last season. Furthermore, the factory team organised by Puccetti has strengthened its line-up with two-time Supersport World Champion Dominique Aegerter.

However, the Swiss rider is struggling to get to grips with the Kawasaki. Regular readers of SPEEDWEEK.com have long been aware that, after just one season, the two will part ways.

At the same time, team-mate Alcoba secured Kawasaki’s first podium of 2026 by finishing third in the first race at Donington Park – despite the young Spaniard emerging from the first lap in eighth place and missing out on second place by just 0.4 seconds.

“I had a really poor start – we hadn’t practised many starts in training,” said Alcoba, explaining his slow start from third on the grid. “I stayed calm because I knew the tyres would degrade badly, so I maintained my pace. I knew the others would be strong at the start but wouldn’t be at the end. I knew I’m good at the end of races. I narrowly missed out on second place by a hair’s breadth, but I’m still very satisfied. I think we found something at the last test in Cremona that makes us faster.”

After finishing sixth in Sunday’s race, Alcoba felt he’d been denied another top-three finish.

“Everything was going exactly as I’d imagined until a rider decided to force me off the track and I ended up in the gravel. That happened just as I was attacking, but then I lost two seconds. When I saw the final results, I was two seconds short of being able to fight for second place like I did yesterday,” said the 24-year-old, frustrated. “It’s a shame, because I wanted to have a perfect weekend. I wanted to make the most of it whilst we had the chance. Sometimes that’s just the way it is in racing.”

Donington Park marks Kawasaki’s best race weekend so far in the 2026 Supersport World Championship. If Alcoba were to maintain this level of performance until the season finale, the Spaniard could still snatch sixth place in the World Championship from Philipp Öttl (Ducati). In 2025, Alcoba finished eighth overall.

“In the last race I was fifth, then third and sixth again. I think we’re in a good run of form at the moment,” said the Kawasaki rider confidently. “We’ve got a break from racing now, but we’ll keep giving it our all, and the team has done a really good job.”