Phillip Island: eighth in the Superpole Race, Lorenzo Baldassarri finishes ninth in Race 2 in wet conditions and concludes the first round in fourth place in the overall standings.

The first round of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island ended on a positive note for Lorenzo Baldassarri, who, after a fine podium finish in Race 1, put in two more strong performances. In the Superpole Race, he narrowly missed the podium and finished fourth after a furious battle to defend himself from his rivals’ attacks. The ten laps of the sprint race were not enough for the GoEleven team rider to finish in the top three, but Lorenzo still found an excellent way to stay in touch in the standings in Race2.

He got off to a good start in the second race as well, but rain on the track affected the performance of the entire field, causing several retirements and crashes. Skilful in avoiding mistakes that could have ruined a weekend that had started very well, he limited the damage with a ninth place finish that guaranteed him points and consolidated his fourth place in the overall standings. There was regret over the double long lap for an alleged false start detected by the race commission, without which his performance in Race 2 would have been even better. Aware that he made the most of what was available in this official debut with the Ducati Panigale V4R, there is plenty of room for improvement and to become even more competitive in all conditions.

«It’s like my debut in World Supersport in 2022, when I won my first race at Aragon. It’s a huge relief for me, we did a great job with the Ducati guys. There’s a really good atmosphere in the pit. We worked step by step, and the feeling from the first dry session was good. From there, we moved forward and took the podium in our first race. It’s a shame about the rain in Race 2, which ruined our plans a bit. After the Superpole Race, we were ready to repeat our performance and aim for the podium, but we’re still happy with the classification, and we’ll make up for it in the next races.»

Lorenzo Baldassarri

See you in just over a month, when World Superbike arrives in Portimão, Portugal, from 27 to 29 March. Follow us on social media channels 7balda (Instagram), Lorenzo Baldassarri (Facebook) and lorenzobaldassarri.com, on the official website worldsbk.com, and to make sure you don’t miss any of the excitement of the races, you can watch them live and on demand on worldsbk.com, Sky Sport, NOWtv and TV8 on channel 8 of the DTT.