October 9–11, 2026 | WorldSBK & WorldSSP Round 11, Estoril
The penultimate round of the season once again saw Kawasaki take center stage: Alcoba’s victory, Aegerter’s progress, and Gerloff’s comeback in Race 2.
JEREMY ALCOBA | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636 | WorldSSP
The Ninja ZX-6R 636 still struggles on single-lap times, but it steps up its game in the long races. At Estoril, Alcoba started from the fourth row again, and in Race 1 he patiently built his race, joining the leading group in the decisive laps. He finished third, just 0.147 seconds behind winner Booth-Amos, in the race that crowned Arenas.
On Sunday, the weather shook things up. Light rain and a red flag—displayed after Sofuoglu’s crash at Turn 3—turned Race 2 into a six-lap sprint. Alcoba took the lead with three laps to go and held off Farioli, who finished less than half a second behind. It’s his third victory in four races, following his one-two finish in Cremona. With 229 points, the Spaniard is fifth in the World Championship, just five points behind Öncü in the race for third place overall.
DOMINIQUE AEGERTER | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636 | WorldSSP
The Swiss rider achieved his best qualifying result of the year: eighth in Superpole, a sign that the work on the single-lap setup is beginning to pay off. In Race 1, he was consistently running in the top ten, in line with his starting position, but he crashed at Turn 8 on the thirteenth lap, losing valuable points.
He bounced back on Sunday. After the red flag, he restarted from 14th position and, in just six laps, fought his way back up to eighth place, 3.707 seconds behind Alcoba. It’s his second-best result of the season. With a more favorable grid position, the outcome would have been different, and that’s exactly where the room for improvement lies: turning race pace into a higher starting position.
GARRETT GERLOFF | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | WorldSBK
As in recent races, the ZX-10RR performs best over the long haul. In Race 1, Gerloff—who qualified eleventh in Superpole—finished tenth after being twelfth at the end of the first lap, and took home six points.
The morning’s Superpole Race was the low point of the weekend: a wide line early on caused him to drop all the way to eighteenth place, resulting in a thirteenth-place starting position for Race 2. The Texan responded with a composed comeback: tenth on the first lap, then seventh at the finish, ahead of Oliveira by less than seven-tenths of a second. That earned him nine points, for a weekend total of 15, keeping Gerloff in ninth place in the World Championship with 160 points.
The championship wraps up at Jerez from October 16–18, with Kawasaki heading into the event in top form.
