Oliveira’s WorldSBK Debut: A Seventh-Place Finish Amidst Rain and Recovery at Phillip Island

Miguel Oliveira, in his debut weekend in the Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK), secured a seventh-place finish in the second race at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Australia on Sunday, February 21, 2026. The Portuguese rider, starting from 18th on the grid due to a technical issue in the Superpole qualifying session, demonstrated a strong recovery performance.

Race Recap: From 18th to Seventh

Oliveira’s progression throughout the weekend was marked by resilience. After being unable to complete qualifying due to a fall, he started the first race from last place and climbed to eighth. In the second race, held in challenging wet conditions, he further improved to seventh, finishing 32.135 seconds behind race winner Nicolo Bulega.

Bulega Dominates the Australian Round

The Australian round was dominated by Nicolo Bulega, who achieved a hat-trick by winning the Superpole and both races. In the rain-affected Race 2, Bulega finished ahead of Axel Bassani (Kawasaki) and Alvaro Bautista (Barni Spark Racing Team).

Incidents and Retirements

The wet race saw several riders fall, including Yari Montella and Sam Lowes, both of whom were challenging for podium positions at the time of their crashes. Lowes suffered a broken left wrist and bruises to his right hand and left ankle as a result of his fall on lap six. Montella crashed on lap 16 while in second place. These incidents elevated Bassani to second and Bautista to third.

Bautista Makes History

Alvaro Bautista’s third-place finish was a historic achievement, making him the second-oldest rider to reach a podium in WorldSBK history, at 41 years, 3 months, and 1 day old, surpassed only by Max Biaggi.

Championship Standings

With all finishers scoring points due to several withdrawals, Oliveira accumulated 17 points over the weekend – 8 from the first race and 9 from the second. He currently sits eighth in the World Championship standings, 45 points behind leader Nicolo Bulega, who secured a maximum score of 62 points in the opening round.

Oliveira’s Reaction

“At least we scored in both races,” Oliveira stated to the BMW team website. “The weekend was a progression, without a doubt. It was just a shame that qualifying dictated much of the weekend’s outcome. We made three remarkably decent recoveries, especially this morning in the Superpole Race, moving up to P9, but then a compact problem with the quickshifter prevented me from having a better starting position for the second race. This afternoon we had another opportunity to fight for points and I managed to do so. Recovering from last place, in these conditions of intense rain, was probably the most difficult thing I had to do, because the visibility was very poor and the conditions were complicated.”

“Still, we managed to stay on the track, which in itself was an achievement, given the conditions, and then finish in P7, very close to Danilo – we have to be satisfied with that. At least we scored in both races. It’s certainly not the position we want to be in, but given the circumstances we made the most of the situation. We’re going to Portimão with our heads held high, because we’ve done a good job improving the bike and we still have two extra days there before the race. I’m sure we will show much more competitiveness,” he concluded.

Next Round: Portimão

The next stage of the Superbike World Championship will take place at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal.