{"id":491631,"date":"2026-02-20T04:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491631\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T04:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:24:07","slug":"2026-phillip-island-worldsbk-friday-practice-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491631\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Phillip Island WorldSBK: Friday Practice Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 title favourite Nicolo Bulega carried his pre-season dominance into Free Practice 1 for the opening WorldSBK round at Phillip Island, Australia.<\/p>\n

The Aruba.it Ducati rider, quickest in all four track sessions earlier this week, was fastest for all but the opening minutes of FP1.<\/p>\n

Worryingly for his rivals, Nicolo Bulega’s<\/a> best time also came on the penultimate lap of a long 12-lap run.<\/p>\n

Sam Lowes<\/a>, second in testing for Marc VDS, was again Bulega’s <\/a>nearest rival, albeit half a second adrift.<\/p>\n

Bimota\u2019s Axel Bassani was third ahead of Yari Montella (Barni), team-mate Alex Lowes and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Goeleven).<\/p>\n

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Garrett Gerloff was the top Kawasaki in seventh, WorldSBK<\/a> rookie Miguel Oliveira<\/a> the fastest BMW in ninth and Xavi Vierge the leading Yamaha in 11th.<\/p>\n

Jake Dixon <\/a>joins HRC team-mate Somkiat Chantra on the sidelines after being injured in testing earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Dixon has now undergone surgery for multiple fractures<\/a> in his left hand and wrist.<\/p>\n

Wild-card Ryan Vickers took up the baton as the leading Honda rider with 15th in FP1.<\/p>\n

Second practice takes place from 4:00-4:45pm local time\u2026<\/p>\n

2026 Phillip Island World Superbike – Friday Practice Results (1)POSRIDERNATTEAMTIME1Nicolo BulegaITAAruba.it – Ducati1:28.858s2Sam LowesGBRELF Marc VDS Racing Team+0.524s3Axel BassaniITAbimota by Kawasaki Racing Team+0.689s4Yari MontellaITABarni Spark Racing Team+0.703s5Alex LowesGBRbimota by Kawasaki Racing Team+0.757s6Lorenzo BaldassarriITATeam Goeleven+0.811s7Garrett GerloffUSAKawasaki Team+0.834s8Alvaro BautistaESPBarni Spark Racing Team+0.852s9Miguel OliveiraPORROKiT BMW Motorrad Team+0.888s10Iker LecuonaESPAruba.it – Ducati+0.901s11Xavi ViergeESPPata Maxus Yamaha+0.951s12Danilo PetrucciITAROKiT BMW Motorrad Team+1.034s13Tarran MackenzieGBRMGM Optical Express Racing+1.035s14Alberto SurraITAMotocorsa Ducati+1.059s15Ryan VickersGBRHonda HRC+1.455s16Andrea LocatelliITAPata Maxus Yamaha+1.561s17Remy GardnerAUSGYTR GRT Yamaha Team+1.696s18Tetsuta NagashimaJPNHonda HRC+1.702s19Stefano ManziITAGYTR GRT Yamaha Team+1.719s20Bahattin SofuogluTURMotoxracing Team+2.192s21Mattia RatoITAMotoxracing Team+2.754s<\/p>\n

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Fastest 2026 Phillip Island WorldSBK Test Time:<\/p>\n

Nicolo Bulega, Ducati, 1m 28.630s.<\/p>\n

Official Phillip Island WorldSBK Records:<\/p>\n

Best lap:\u00a0Nicolo Bulega, Ducati, 1m 27.916 (2024)<\/p>\n

Fastest race lap:\u00a0Nicolo Bulega, Ducati, 1m 28.564 (2024)<\/p>\n

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Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 title favourite Nicolo Bulega carried his pre-season dominance into Free Practice 1 for the opening WorldSBK round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[147806,64,63,120859,6907,109804,234256,248348,3557,806,805,803,804,6909,228720,85,130575],"class_list":["post-491631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-alex-lowes","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-axel-bassani","tag-danilo-petrucci","tag-garrett-gerloff","tag-iker-lecuona","tag-lorenzo-baldassarri","tag-miguel-oliveira","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-nicolo-bulega","tag-sam-lowes","tag-sports","tag-xavi-vierge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}