Bimota works rider Axel Bassani (27) is convinced: things couldn’t have gone any better in 2026

The top four in the overall standings are Ducati riders, along with the sixth, eighth and ninth-placed riders in the World Championship: seven out of nine V4Rs finished the 2026 Superbike World Championship in the top nine. And had Tommy Bridewell and his Advocates team not been rookies, and had Optical Express rider Tarran Mackenzie not been injured during the last five rounds, the picture might well have been even more one-sided.

The places between the Ducatis were secured by the Bimota riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani. After the Englishman and the Italian stood together on the podium in the Superpole race at the season opener at Phillip Island, some might perhaps have expected a little more. However, Bimota’s first double podium was also down to the fact that Iker Lecuona was competing in his first race weekend on a Ducati.

Bassani delivered Bimota’s best results with two second-place finishes in Australia. By the end of the season, however, Lowes had the edge in fifth place, whilst Bassani finished his second year on the KB998 in seventh. “We fought right to the end and tried to finish in the top six in the championship. In the end, we finished in seventh place, which I think is really good,” emphasised Bassani. “Alex finished fifth in the championship, so both Bimotas made it into the top 10. I really think we got the most out of it! The team did everything in our power.”

Encouraging for Bassani: compared to 2025, in the first year of Bimota’s return to the top category of the production-based World Championship, the 27-year-old from Feltre scored 62 more World Championship points (222 to 140) and improved his World Championship ranking by three places. “I think we’ve all – the riders, the team and everyone else – done an incredible job,” said Bassani. “We battled it out with the top riders right until the end. Now we need a short break before we start working towards next year.”

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