"Important for us" - Why WorldSBK's fight for third shouldn't be ignored
Yari Montella took another step towards securing third in the 2026 WorldSBK season at Magny-Cours.
Two podiums for Yari Montella came as the result of something of a turnaround at the French WorldSBK, but helped him strengthen his position in third place in the riders’ standings.
Aside from the dominant factory Ducatis, it’s Montella who has the most podium finishes in WorldSBK this season.
13 in total have gone the way of the Barni Ducati rider, with eight of those coming in the last nine races.
The Magny-Cours weekend, though, started with Montella on the backfoot compared to Sam Lowes, who qualified on the front row and finished third in Race 1.
But a crash for the Marc VDS rider opened the door for Montella to resume the position he had made his own in the rounds before the summer break: first behind the Aruba.it bikes.
The Italian admitted after Race 2 that the weekend had been a struggle to begin with, but that by the end of the it he was able to put in his best performance so far, in his opinion.
“Struggled, yes,” Yari Montella admitted, speaking to WorldSBK.com after Race 2 at Magny-Cours.
“It was not like the last weekends because yesterday we finished with a P4. But, P4 is always a P4 – not a bad result.
“Anyway, [on Sunday] we knew that we had a chance to improve a little bit with the bike and at the end we achieved because we made some adjustments this morning and in Superpole Race we made another big change, and at the end it paid off because I had a good pace.
“For sure in the Superpole Race I was a bit lucky for the [Sam] Lowes crash, but anyway I was there. So, I just made my best and today I had my chance to put my rhythm.
“I made my best race ever [in Race 2], I think, because I was super-happy about my feeling, I had a good rhythm all the race.
“I started to struggle a little bit with the front tyre at the end but it was not a bad race, not too far from Iker [Lecuona] – from Nicolo [Bulega] yes, but from second was not bad.
“It’s a good way to start after the summer break.”
Montella’s results, combined with a DNF each for Sam and Alex Lowes on Sunday, means his grip on third place in the standings is strengthened, the Italian now 46 points ahead of Alex Lowes and 49 ahead of Sam Lowes.
“A good weekend for us overall because we continue to put some points on our championship and it’s really important for us,” Montella said.
“The main thing is the feeling I have with the bike. Then, after this feeling, for sure the result comes.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
