July 10–12, 2026 | WorldSBK & WorldSSP Round 8 – Prosecco DOC UK Round
Donington Park delivered a breakthrough weekend for the paddock: the Kawasaki WorldSBK Team and Manuel Puccetti’s Kawasaki WorldSSP Team wrapped up the first half of the season with their most well-rounded performance of the year. A first podium in WorldSSP, a top-six finish in WorldSBK, and positive technical signs have the teams looking forward with confidence to the second half of the championship.
GARRETT GERLOFF | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | WorldSBK
Donington Park had already shown promise during Friday’s free practice sessions: Gerloff finished the combined sessions with the ninth-fastest time overall, confirming a connection with the track that has always brought out the best in him. That solid foundation translated into a consistent and progressive weekend.
In Race 1, Gerloff finished in eighth place, rounding out the top ten alongside Axel Bassani and Xavi Vierge. It was a solid performance on a track where the ZX-10RR found a convincing balance between the front and rear ends in the fast sections of the Craner Curves.
Sunday morning’s Superpole Race confirmed that pace: Gerloff finished ninth, securing the last available points in a race that saw Lecuona crash out while leading on the second lap, reopening the contest.
The most significant moment of the weekend came in the afternoon. In Race 2, Gerloff passed Sam Lowes in the opening sector of lap 18, securing sixth place overall. Sixth place in the final race of the British round: the best result of the day for the factory ZX-10RR, and a clear sign of progress compared to the comebacks from the back of the pack at Misano. With this weekend’s results, Gerloff moves into eighth place in the overall standings, solidifying his position in the second half of the season.
JEREMY ALCOBA | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636 | WorldSSP
Donington Park will remain in Jeremy Alcoba’s memory as the round where the Kawasaki ZX-6R 636 finally made it onto the podium in 2026. The path to getting there, however, was not what he had imagined beforehand.
In Race 1, Alcoba started from fourth on the grid, his best starting position of the season. A difficult start saw him get swallowed up by the pack, and by the third lap he had already slipped to eighth place. From there, he mounted a methodical climb back up the field, corner by corner: by lap 14 he had regained fourth place, and two laps later he had overtaken Öncü for third. He crossed the finish line in third place, just 0.461 seconds behind Arenas: Alcoba’s first podium of the season and Kawasaki’s first WorldSSP 2026 podium.
Race 2 confirmed his consistency: Alcoba closed out Sunday, cementing the weekend as the Kawasaki team’s best of the season in WorldSSP. Two solid performances, built on the ability to read the race already seen at Misano, but this time with more favorable starting positions. Eighth place in the overall standings, with the Race 1 podium now under his belt, positions the Spaniard as a key contender in the second half of a championship that remains wide open from fourth place down.
DOMINIQUE AEGERTER | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636 | WorldSSP
For Aegerter, the British weekend ended on a mixed note, though the results offer a different perspective than his standings suggest. In Race 1, the Swiss rider made no secret of his disappointment with a 12th-place finish that fell short of the expectations built up during the week leading up to the race. The Donington track—on paper one of the best suited to his riding style—did not yield the strong qualifying result he had hoped for, once again dampening his starting prospects.
In Race 2, with the morning fog having given way to more favorable conditions, Aegerter showed a solid response, with an improved lap pace compared to Saturday and the Ninja ZX-6R 636 demonstrating greater stability as the track warmed up. The process of fine-tuning the setup between qualifying and the race remains a top priority to address during the summer break, along with analyzing the data collected at Donington, which the team will take to the Magny-Cours test in September.
With the Donington round, the World Championship enters its summer break. The WorldSBK and WorldSSP championships will return to the track in September, at Magny-Cours from September 4–6, followed by the Cremona Circuit on September 25–27. For the Kawasaki WorldSBK and WorldSSP Team, the first podium finish of the season is the ideal starting point for a strong finish to the season.
