2026 Phillip Island WorldSBK: Friday Practice Results

Lap times from the opening day of practice at the 2026 Australian WorldSBK at Phillip Island.

Nicolo Bulega topped the second free practice session of the day in Phillip Island, the Italian completing the sweep of Friday practice in Australia.

Bulega wasn't as fast in FP2 as he was on Friday morning and his margin was smaller, this time 0.253 seconds clear of Alex Lowes in second place, the British rider in the top-two despite a late crash at turn four. Lowes was joined by Bimota teammate Axel Bassani in the top-three, just over a tenth further back.

Alvaro Bautista was running in the bottom half of the top-10 for most of the session but improved late on to go fourth, while Lorenzo Baldassarri continued his impressive week in Australia in fifth place.

Sam Lowes was sixth-fastest following a crash at turn one with around 15 minutes remaining; he was able to walk away.

Yari Montella, Iker Lecuona, Garrett Gerloff, and Xavi Vierge completed the top-10 in FP2, just ahead of Danilo Petrucci who was the best BMW.

There was a red flag in the session with just under 28 minutes remaining, the cause being a wallaby on-track. Nicolo Bulega came across it while on one of his long runs but fortunately they didn't come too close to contact.

Full World Superbike results from FP2 in Australia are below.

FP1

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

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

Worryingly for his rivals, Nicolo Bulega's best time also came on the penultimate lap of a long 12-lap run.

Sam Lowes, second in testing for Marc VDS, was again Bulega's nearest rival, albeit half a second adrift.

Bimota’s Axel Bassani was third ahead of Yari Montella (Barni), team-mate Alex Lowes and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Goeleven).

Garrett Gerloff was the top Kawasaki in seventh, WorldSBK rookie Miguel Oliveira the fastest BMW in ninth and Xavi Vierge the leading Yamaha in 11th.

Jake Dixon joins HRC team-mate Somkiat Chantra on the sidelines after being injured in testing earlier this week.

Dixon has now undergone surgery for multiple fractures in his left hand and wrist.

Wild-card Ryan Vickers took up the baton as the leading Honda rider with 15th in FP1.

Second practice takes place from 4:00-4:45pm local time…