June 13–14, 2026 | WorldSBK & WorldSSP Round 7 – Emilia-Romagna

The Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” hosted the seventh round of the WorldSBK and WorldSSP calendar, treating the paddock to extreme temperatures—up to 34°C air and 52°C on the track—that turned each session into a challenge of thermal management as much as sheer speed. Against this backdrop, the Kawasaki WorldSBK Team and Manuel Puccetti’s Kawasaki WorldSSP Team concluded a mixed weekend but with signs of technical continuity, ahead of the development test already scheduled in Cremona for the end of June. The Ninja ZX-10RR and Ninja ZX-6R 636 demonstrated selective progress, with performances that merit our usual rider-by-rider analysis.

GARRETT GERLOFF

In Superpole, Gerloff crashed before he could set a time, compromising his starting position in both Saturday and Sunday’s races. This setback inevitably made the weekend’s prospects challenging. In Race 1, starting from the back of the grid, Gerloff finished fourteenth, a result that speaks volumes about the difficulty of recovering on a track like Misano, characterized by few clear overtaking opportunities, with a ZX-10RR penalized by a less-than-optimal setup for the high temperatures. In Race 2, the American managed to climb from 22nd on the grid to 12th at the finish, a comeback that confirms the progressive refinement of the Ninja 1000cc’s chassis package. The narrow gap over Vierge (Yamaha) at the finish, just 0.017 seconds, demonstrates how the race pace has improved compared to Saturday, with the bike finding greater stability on the tires in the warm-up phase.

JEREMY ALCOBA

The home weekend concluded with a truly impressive performance in Race 2. In Race 1, starting from 18th on the grid, Alcoba finished 14th, just 0.272 seconds behind teammate Aegerter, accumulating valuable points in record-breaking temperatures: 30°C air, 52°C track. The Ninja ZX-6R 636 suffered from the heat in qualifying, failing to express its potential on the flying lap, forcing both riders to make significant gains in the race. On Sunday, the script changed radically. Alcoba climbed from 19th on the grid to fifth place, finishing just 8.5 seconds behind winner Arenas. The comeback took shape with a decisive pass on Ferrari at Turn 14 on the penultimate lap, and was completed with a final-lap pass on Casadei at the same corner: Alcoba’s first top-five finish of the season since Balaton Park. The Spaniard demonstrated a superior ability to read the race and manage tire degradation compared to the average driver in the field, taking advantage of the hot phase—paradoxically problematic in qualifying—to put pressure on rivals with more compromised compounds. In the overall standings, after seven of the twelve scheduled rounds, Alcoba sits ninth with 100 points.

DOMINIQUE AEGERTER

For the Swiss three-time world champion, the Misano round represented a step closer rather than a breakthrough result. Aegerter crossed the finish line in 13th place in Race 1, his 400th start in a world championship, improving his starting position despite the unfavorable conditions. In Race 2, the placing remained unchanged, but the data tells a different story: the gap to the winner was reduced by five seconds compared to Saturday, a sign of a real progression in pace. Aegerter himself admitted to having suffered two contacts with rivals in the final laps, which caused him to lose some positions at a time when he was in a position to fight for the top ten. The process of adapting to the ZX-6R 636, after years in WorldSBK, continues steadily, and the Cremona test at the end of June becomes a key event to consolidate the latest setup solutions emerged over the weekend.