Ducati rider’s double “dream” Saturday at Australian WorldSBK

Yari Montella had his best day as a World Superbike rider on Saturday at the Australian WorldSBK, achieving two “dream” moments.

The first of these came in the Superpole session, when he said it was “like a dream” to qualify on the front row.

The Italian then converted that front row to a first World Superbike podium in Race 1, a result that generated a similar feeling for Montella as his front row.

“First podium here in Phillip Island is like a dream for everybody,” he told WorldSBK.com.

“I want to say thanks to the team because the work we did this winter, these winter tests, [at the Phillip Island test]. 

“I’m so happy about that. At the end, since the beginning, here, we started with a good base, of setup – everything. 

“So, our job was just to put this work at the end and that’s the result because today in Superpole, in Race 1, we made our job – nothing more, nothing less. 

“I’m so happy about that. First podium after such a hard season last year, so it’s unbelievable.”

For Montella, it’s also a podium that came after not only a tough 2025 season that left him 18th in the championship, but also a winter spent analysing what went wrong last year to try to improve this year.

“It [the podium] means a lot because we worked hard this winter, a lot on myself,” he said.

“I worked hard on myself, I analysed all last year, all the races to understand what was wrong because I made a lot of mistakes, a lot of crashes, a lot of everything. It was a lot [more] down than up. 

“I used the experience that I made last year, that I learnt, and I put everything together and here we are. So happy for that. 

“For sure we are in a strange circuit, because Phillip Island is something unique in the world. So, at the moment I enjoy it, I’m focused on tomorrow, and then I want to put the speed also on other tracks.”