A blistering final sprint from Jeremy Alcoba: three Kawasaki wins in four races

Some of the stories that emerge from motor racing are so fantastic that they could serve as the basis for a Hollywood film. Take, for example, that of Jeremy Alcoba in the 2026 Supersport World Championship. At the start of the season, the Spaniard could not finish higher than seventh at the rounds at Phillip Island, Portimão and Assen. It was not until the Balaton Circuit that the 24-year-old achieved his first top-five result, finishing fourth. A second top-five finish followed at his team’s home race in Misano – the seventh round of the season. At that point, the Kawasaki rider was sitting in a modest ninth place in the World Championship standings.

But since his first podium finish at Donington Park, things have been looking up. In Cremona, Alcoba celebrated a fantastic one-two finish. It was Kawasaki’s first ever. Shortly before that, he’d been told he’d have to look for a new team for 2027!

And last weekend, the Catalan from Tortosa followed that up with third place and another victory! “I’m feeling really good on the bike at the moment. I didn’t have the same confidence here as I did at the last race in Cremona – because we’d done a test there – but Estoril is a track I like. I already made a good comeback here last year,” said Alcoba. “In the first race, I was down in 16th place at one point and hadn’t expected to have such a good race. But even when I wasn’t getting on well with the bike, I was close to fighting for the win. In the warm-up, I felt really good on the bike, but I was very slow and didn’t know why. I was a bit annoyed with myself and frustrated.”

The second race was stopped after a crash by Bahattin Sofuoglu (QJ Motor) on lap 10 and restarted over just six laps. “I wouldn’t have expected to ride the way I did after the red flag, but it felt really good,” beamed the Kawasaki rider. “I was in third place, then second, and then I tried to get to the front. I knew that if they didn’t overtake me on the straight, I’d win, because I was braking very late and knew in which corners they could gain a bit of ground. They couldn’t overtake me in the last two laps, and when I saw the lap time on the final lap, it was incredible. I’m really happy.”

With three wins and four podium finishes from the last four races, Alcoba has climbed to fifth in the World Championship standings on 229 points – level on points with his successor in the Kawasaki works team, Jaume Masià (4th/Ducati). If Alcoba maintains this form at the season finale in Jerez, he could finish the 2026 Supersport World Championship in third place overall, as he is just five points behind Can Öncü (Yamaha)! Meanwhile, Kawasaki team principal Manuel Puccetti is having to field questions as to why he did not extend Alcoba’s contract for 2027.

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