Setbacks, bad luck and mishaps: nothing went right for Philipp Öttl at Magny-Cours

It was only in free practice that Philipp Öttl, finishing third, was able to demonstrate what he and his V2 Ducati are capable of at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours. An early crash in Superpole – the Bavarian failed to set a timed lap – heralded what was to be Öttl’s worst race weekend of the 2026 Supersport World Championship.

Instead of ploughing his way through the field from the eleventh row of the grid, the Bavarian faltered and finished 28th. It later transpired that there had been a problem with the steering. A pit stop for a tyre change, in the hope of securing at least a better starting position for the second race with a fast lap time, also proved to be a mistake in hindsight – he fell short by 0.005 seconds.

As if that weren’t enough: a broken exhaust meant he couldn’t make any headway in the second race either. How much bad luck can one have?

“We got off to a good start on Friday, but then I made a mistake, and from that moment on we just had nothing but bad luck,” groaned Öttl. “Overall, this weekend was very unfortunate and difficult for us. At the start of Race 2 today, we had a problem with the exhaust system, which cost us some power. Shortly before the red flag, I had to pull into the pits because of it, so we couldn’t do much after the race restarted. I’m really disappointed that we weren’t able to show our true potential. Now we’ll try to give it our all in Cremona. We’ve got a test day there beforehand, so we want to prepare as well as possible.”

Magny-Cours was by far the worst weekend of Öttl’s Supersport career. This is the first time since the 30-year-old made his debut in 2020 that he has failed to score any World Championship points in both races. In the overall standings, however, the Assen winner still occupies seventh place with 139 points.