Alex Lowes breaks key Ducati streak despite Misano WorldSBK yellow flag chaos

Ducati had locked out the front row in all of the opening six rounds of the 2026 WorldSBK season, but that streak was broken at Misano by Alex Lowes.

Lowes was able to qualify third at Misano thanks to a 1m32.000s lap that took him ahead of three satellite Ducati riders that are lined up on row two: Yari Montella, Lorenzo Baldassarri, and Alberto Surra.

The Bimota rider achieved that result despite having to navigate a number of yellow flag sectors that had his laps cancelled as several riders crashed in the session.

“It’s going to be a hot race, but happy with that,” Alex Lowes told the WorldSBK world feed broadcast in parc ferme after Superpole.

“I did my best lap ever of Misano this morning [in FP3] and we managed to improve a little bit for Superpole. 

“There were some yellow flags so it was the third lap on the tyre and by the last sector I was sliding quite a lot. 

“But really happy, put ourselves in a good position, team are doing fantastic, home race for Bimota, and looking forward to the race. Not going to be easy, but we’re starting in the right place.”

Bulega equals Rea record

While Ducati’s front row lockout streak was finished by Lowes at Misano, Nicolo Bulega continued his perfect 2026 with a seventh pole from seven races. Having also taken pole at Jerez last year, Bulega has taken eight consecutive poles, equalling the record set by Jonathan Rea in 2021.

“It’s fantastic to make this pole position and this one more record in front of all these guys and in front of all these fans,” Bulega told the world feed broadcast in perc ferme.

“It’s very nice. Now let’s think about the race, I hope to be fast also in Race 1.”

Another recovery for Lecuona

Iker Lecuona had been in recovery on Friday at Misano as he tried to adapt his style back to that of WorldSBK after riding in MotoGP last weekend.

On Saturday it was a similar story, as the Spaniard took a wrong direction with his bike setup in FP3, meaning he had to take some risks in Superpole. Those risks clearly paid off, as he took P2.

“It was important that P2,” Lecuona said in parc ferme.

“For us it’s important that first row  to have a good start and be with Nicolo [Bulega]. I know he’s extremely fast in that track, he loves it here at home, so I know it was tricky to beat him but in any case I’m happy because we are close. 

“I didn’t do a perfect lap, honestly, but even like that we are P2 that is the important thing.

“We did a really good job, the team did also a really good job with the bike because in the morning I struggled a little bit so we changed the bike with a little bit of risk in that qualifying but the bike worked really well. 

“Now just focus for the race, will be a hard race with the temperature, and that’s it.”