This year’s final round of the World Superbike Championship, held at Jerez in Spain at the weekend, saw Toprak Razgatlioglu crowned champion for the third time but a second race crash, after he was nudged by arch rival Nicolo Bulega, led for some nervy moments for the BMW rider before third in the final race saw him take the title.
Toprak delivers – again
For Razgatlioglu, it was the perfect way to end his eight-year spell in the WSB series with the Turkish rider making a much-anticipated switch to the MotoGP World Championship in 2026 where he’ll join forces with Pramac Yamaha.
That’s still to come and although Toprak had stiff opposition from Ducati’s Bulega for a second year running, his success was ultimately sealed with a devastating mid-season run which saw him win 13 races in a row.
With Bulega finishing second in almost all of those 13 races though, Toprak could never rest on his laurels particularly as he knew his Italian rival and his Ducati would be strong at the final circuits on the calendar.
That’s exactly how it panned out and the aforementioned crash, which came Bulega tried to go inside before the back straight, meant the gap between the two riders was just 22 points ahead of the final race. It had to be a trouble-free ride for Toprak and he duly delivered, leaving the series with three world titles, 78 wins and 172 podiums, the second highest figures of all-time.
Second again for Bulega
With Alvaro Bautista making frequent mistakes in the last two seasons and Jonathan Rea suffering from injury and a lack of form, Italian Bulega has more than stepped up to the plate in terms of being a main title challenger and he’s been a more than worthy adversary to Razgatlioglu.
In any other period, Bulega would be a two-time World Champion now, but he’s found himself up against one of the all-time greats, but he’s pushed Toprak harder than anyone throughout these last two years. And the fact the duo won every race in 2025 and finished almost 300 points clear of third-placed Bautista shows just how much they’ve dominated.
The Italian has established himself as Ducati’s number one rider and with Toprak gone, he’ll be hoping a maiden world title comes his way in 2026. Racing doesn’t always go to plan like that but Bulega will go into next season as the strong favourite and it will be interesting to see who steps up to challenge him.
Bulega has a MotoGP testing deal already in place and if WSB success should come his way, he’ll be hoping it leads into a MotoGP ride in 2027. With the new 850cc engines coming into play then, along with Pirelli tyres, it’ll be a clean slate for everyone and Bulega could be well placed.
Bautista’s best of the rest
With Razgatlioglu and Bulega having a stranglehold of first and second place all season, the rest of the field have been fighting for third place finishes and Buelga’s team-mate Bautista has proven to be the best of the rest.
World Champion in both 2022 and 2023, the last two seasons haven’t gone to plan for the Spaniard with frequent mistakes leading to crashes whilst his qualifying form has continued to be his Achilles heel.
As a result, he hasn’t been able to challenge for the title in either season and, turning 41 next month, one has to wonder if he’ll find himself in a position to challenge again. He still has the pace to run at the front but doing that on a regular basis is proving harder and harder.
He’s also lost his factory Ducati ride and, instead, will ride for the Barni Ducati team in 2026. They’ve won races and secured regular podiums with Danilo Petrucci in both 2024 and 2025 so Bautista will be hoping for the same – and moving away from the pressure cauldron of the factory Ducati team may be a benefit to him, rather than a hindrance.
Injuries end Petrucci and Lowes’ seasons
The Ducati pairing of Petrucci (Barni Racing) and Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS) have both been well to the fore this year with the former’s consistent performances seeing him clinch fifth overall in the championship and a ride with the factory BMW for 2026 where he’ll replace the outgoing Razgatlioglu.
However, it could have been even better had it not been for a training accident leaving him with hand injuries and ruling him out of the final two rounds. Up until then, he’d been on course to take third in the championship. Nevertheless, with seven podiums it was another good season for the ex-MotoGP race winner and although he has big boots to fill at BMW, he’ll be aiming to fight for the title next year.
Lowes was another rider to fall victim to a training accident, this time chest injuries the outcome. He tried to race at the final two rounds but was ultimately ruled out of each after the opening day. He slipped back to eighth at the final count although a top six championship position had been on the cards.
Lowes, who finished on the podium five times, made good progress in his second WSB season and was a far more consistent challenger than his maiden campaign. He still crashed too often, and this will be what he’ll be looking to eradicate next year. And if he can do that, he should be pushing for a top three position.
Strong maiden year for Bimota
Bimota can be more than satisfied with their return to the World Superbike Championship, riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani finishing sixth and tenth overall respectively after 12 hard-fought rounds.
Perhaps to be expected, the more experienced Lowes, whose been in the series since 2014, was the pick of the two riders taking four podiums and scoring points in 28 of the 33 races. He was a regular visitor to the top six and with a year’s data under their belt, the Bimota KB998, which uses a Kawasaki ZX-10RR engine, he should be even stronger in 2026.
Bassani didn’t shine as much as Lowes and since using ZX-10RR power, he hasn’t reached the heights he showed on the Motocorsa Ducati in 2022 and 2023 when he finished seventh and sixth overall respectively. But he was a frequent top ten finisher, taking a best finish of fifth and still only 26, time is very much on his side. Like his team-mate, he should be a more potent force next year.
End of an era
The final round at Jerez saw Jonathan Rea bow out of the World Superbike Championship and having been a full-time rider since 2009, it marked the end of an era for both the six-time World Champion and the series.
With 119 wins and 264 podiums, the Northern Irishman is hands down the most successful rider ever in the Championship and although the last two years at Yamaha haven’t gone to plan, his long stint at Kawasaki is what he’ll be most remembered for.
The combination was near unbeatable and the six-year run of success for either a rider or manufacturer is unlikely to be repeated. If he hadn’t been so loyal for Honda for so long, when the Honda wasn’t the best bike to be on, it’s not unreasonable to suggest his statistics could be even higher.
But when he did make the move to Kawasaki in 2015, it was one he never looked back from and throughout it all, he remained the same, level-headed rider he’d always been, a trait that endeared him to thousands of fans.
Rea didn’t go as far as to announce his full-time retirement so whether he takes up a test rider role or moves into the World Endurance Championship, whichever team he links up with is sure to reap the rewards. A WSB legend both on and off the track.
All change at Honda
After four seasons with the Spanish pairing of Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona, Honda have rung the changes already for 2026 with Brit Jake Dixon and Thailand’s Somkiat Chantra moving to the World Superbike Championship after several seasons in the MotoGP paddock.
Both riders have won races in Moto2 and Dixon made his name in the British Superbike Championship, finishing second overall in 2018 so it will be interesting to see if they perform better than the outgoing Spanish pairing of Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona.
Lecuona’s season has again been hindered by crashes and injury, subsequently missing several races but Vierge, ironically, has had his best season on the CBR1000RR Fireblade in seventh overall. However, whether it’s been the bike or the riders, it’s another season where they’ve gone without a podium.
Lecuona and Vierge will be hoping that trend ends in 2026 as they’ve secured plum rides with Aruba Ducati and Pata Yamaha respectively.
No return for Vickers
Whether he had a one year plus one contract or a two year plus one, Ryan Vickers can consider himself extremely unlucky to have his ride with Motocorsa Ducati terminated after just one season. Either way, it’s another case of a British rider’s contract not being honoured.
The former BSB race winner has had a solid season and scored points on a regular basis, which is no mean feat in the BSB series. True, the majority of those finishes have been at the bottom end of the top 15 but he’s had to learn new circuits, a new bike and a new language. And when he’s been to a circuit he knows, or where everyone’s been going to the first time, he’s been challenging the top six.
Razgatlioglu and Bulega have been head and shoulders above the rest but on many occasions, his lap times have only been half a second off third place and he would surely have been stronger in his second campaign. But with the team believed to be asking for £400,000 for a second season, that’s no longer possible. But he’s already secured a ride in the British Superbike series with Honda Racing for 2026 so WSB’s loss is BSB’s gain.