14:56
Lowes gets his lap in and moves up to second with a 1m38.459s.
Nicolo Bulega, 2026 Spanish WorldSBK. Credit: Gold and Goose.
© Gold & Goose
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Jerez WorldSBK LIVE: Updates from Friday practice in Spain
Live coverage of the Friday practice sessions at the 2026 Spanish WorldSBK at Jerez.
Live updates from the Friday practice sessions at the 2026 Spanish WorldSBK at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto. FP2 is due to start at 15:00 local time.
Key Moments
- Bautista crashes at turn nine late on in FP2
- Red flag for Jake Dixon crash
- Bulega leads FP2 early on but Lecuona much closer than FP1
- Bulega tops uneventful FP1 from Sam Lowes, Lecuona
- Bulega leads FP1 early as Ducati holds top three positions
All three titles are wrapped up heading into the final round at Jerez this weekend - even Yari Montella has secured the independent riders' crown thanks to Sam Lowes' poor Estoril Round and the Italian's own decent Race 2 in Portugal last week, finishing fourth.
Montella still has third in the championship to mathematically secure, but with a 53-point lead over Alex Lowes coming into the weekend the Barni Ducati rider is well-placed to walk away from 2026 with a championship bronze medal. The Italian started the weekend well, finishing fourth in FP1, although Sam Lowes was second this morning.
Nicolo Bulega arrives to Jerez fresh off a return to the dominance that had become typical of his 2026 season in Estoril, where Iker Lecuona had no answers for his team-mate's speed. Bulega also did the treble at Jerez last year and took pole by over half-a-second ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu. It will be Bulega's last round in WorldSBK, so no doubt he will be motivated to finish his time in the series and with the Aruba.it Ducati team in the strongest way possible, and he started the weekend out that way by finishing over 0.2 seconds clear of the field in FP1.
While it's Montella chasing third in the championship this weekend, it's Alberto Surra who has emerged as the strongest of the satellite Ducati riders in recent races, with four podiums in the last five races, including three from three in Estoril last week. It was certainly a messy weekend from Montella for the most part, so it will be interesting to see this weekend how the two Italians stack up against each other in Jerez, and whether anyone else can feature in that battle for the final podium position as Miguel Oliveira did a week ago, at least in Race 1. Surra was decent in FP1, finishing fifth, while Oliveira was only 10th. Alex Lowes was the leading non-Ducati rider in sixth.
16 Oct 2026
15:03
FP2 Result
2026 spanish worldsbk - fp2 result
Nicolo Bulega, 2026 Spanish WorldSBK. Credit: Gold and Goose.
© Gold & Goose
14:57
Bulega tops FP2
It's another Friday sweep for Bulega in 2026 as he tops FP2 at Jerez. Sam Lowes and Lecuona complete the top-three.
Surra, Baldassarri, and Montella round out an all-Ducati top-six, ahead of Oliveira, Bassani, Bautista, and Alex Lowes in the top-10.
14:55
Bautista has got the bike restarted behind the barriers and is riding back to the pits.
14:53
Bautista down
Moments after Sam Lowes was wide at turn nine, Bautista has gone down there. He looks to be okay despite getting trapped under the bike briefly.
14:53
Sam Lowes furious with himself - he was up on Bulega's time after two splits but he ran in deep at turn nine and it's gone away/
14:47
Lecuona down to a 1m38.578s to go up to second, still 0.2s behind Bulega, though.
14:45
Bautista turn 2 slide
Bautista pushing on in what could be his final FP2 session in WorldSBK.
14:36
Boards are up at Honda, looks like session over for Dixon after his crash at turn nine.
14:35
Surra up to second since the restart, 0.079s ahead of Lecuona but still 0.3s behind Bulega.
All-Ducati top-five at the moment with Baldassarri and Montella behind Lecuona.
14:25
FP2 restart
Pit lane is back open in Jerez and FP2 is underway once again with 30 minutes on the clock.
14:21
Pit lane due to re-open at 15:25 local time, so about four minutes.
14:15
Dixon was walking away from the crash, so probably an air fence puncture that needs fixing is the cause of the red flag.
14:15
Red flag
First crash of the day and it's for Jake Dixon. Red flags are out after just over 14 minutes.
14:13
Locatelli stuck in the pits with a front brake problem, as reported by the world feed broadcast.
14:09
Well if Lecuona was faster after lap one it's not looking so good after laps two and three - Bulega now 0.383s clear of the Spaniard with 1m38.309s.
14:06
Bulega straight to the top in FP2 on a 1m38.592s, but Lecuona only a tenth behind for now, albeit only five minutes into this afternoon session.
14:00
FP2 start
Pit lane is open in Jerez and we're underway for FP2, the final practice of the day at round 12.
13:56
Certainly warmed up for FP2 - 30C air temperature and 44C on the track for this afternoon practice. Mid-October!
13:53
Salvador speaks after SPB pole
Here's Salvador talking after taking that pole position in the Sportbike class, an important result given the championship context.
13:45
15 minutes away from WorldSBK FP2 starting in Jerez. Still warm and dry in Southern Spain, great conditions for this second session of the day.
13:41
Sportbike Superpole finish
Chequered flag is out on Sportbike Superpole and it's Salvador who takes pole position ahead of Carter Thompson and Xavi Artigas. Well set for the first potential title decider of the weekend in tomorrow's Race 1 with both potential champions starting from the front row.
13:36
David Salvador currently on provisional pole in Sportbike. He'll be champion in Race 1 tomorrow if he out-scores Xavi Artigas by 14 points. Artigas currently third in Superpole with three minutes to go.
13:19
World Sportbike about to head back out for their Superpole session. The session started a few minutes ago but was red flagged for an incident at turn one that has now been cleared.
13:16
FP2
Welcome back to live coverage of Friday at the Spanish WorldSBK. FP2 is due to start in around 45 minutes at 15:00 local time.