Great podium celebrations on Saturday and shocking moments on Sunday: at the fourth race weekend of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) at Balaton Park Circuit (HUN), BMW Motorrad Motorsport and the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team experienced the highs and lows that motorsport can bring. Saturday’s headline was: Miguel Oliveira (POR) is back on the podium! Sunday then brought a bitter twist. In the Superpole Race, both Oliveira and teammate Danilo Petrucci (ITA) were injured, through no fault of their own, and were unable to start the second main race.

Oliveira showed early in the weekend that he would be a contender at Balaton Park Circuit. In Superpole qualifying, he secured fourth place on the grid on his #88 BMW M 1000 RR. He converted that into his fourth podium finish of the season in Saturday afternoon’s first main race: third place for Oliveira. Teammate Petrucci had a more difficult race and finished in 11th.

The team headed into Sunday full of optimism. Oliveira actually made an excellent start to the Superpole Race. But then several other riders collided, and Oliveira was also taken down. The race was red-flagged. An initial diagnosis at the medical centre indicated concussion and an injury to his left shoulder. To assess the injuries further, Oliveira was transferred to hospital.

At the restart of the Superpole Race, Petrucci was then heavily struck by another rider. He was able to continue and fight his way to 16th at the finish. However, race doctors later diagnosed a bruise to his left hip caused by the contact and declared Petrucci unfit to compete in race two. 

Reactions after the Balaton Park round.

Shaun Muir, Team Principal of ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “At the start of the race weekend we identified some challenges during Free Practice, and the team worked hard to make changes ahead of Superpole. Both riders showed good pace, although yellow flags disrupted the session, particularly for Danilo, which left him starting from P13, while Miguel secured a strong P4. In Race 1, Miguel delivered a great ride to finish on the podium in P3, while Danilo recovered well to P11 in a competitive group of riders.

Unfortunately, the Superpole Race proved to be very difficult for us. Miguel was collected in an incident which brought out a red flag, and while it was a big relief to see him conscious, it was a major blow to have him declared unfit for the remainder of the weekend, and we will continue to monitor his condition closely ahead of Most. On the race restart, Danilo was involved in heavy contact on the second corner of the first lap and sustained a hip contusion. He fought on to finish the race and return to the box, but following checks at the medical centre he was declared unfit for Race 2. The priority now is the recovery of both riders, and we wish them a full and speedy recovery.

It’s been a difficult weekend, but the team has worked hard throughout and remains fully focused during this busy period. We now look ahead to Most, a circuit that has suited our package in the past, and we hope to have both riders fit and ready to return.”

Sven Blusch, Head of BMW Motorrad Motorsport: “It was a weekend in which we had to experience every emotion. The great celebration on Saturday: Miguel back on the podium! We could also see that we have improved further in terms of pace. We were faster than last year and, if everything had gone to plan, a podium finish in all three races would definitely have been possible. But Sunday turned into a black day for us. First there was Miguel’s heavy crash, when he was innocently caught up in a collision in the Superpole Race. That was a major shock, along with the initial uncertainty. Fortunately, there was some early, albeit cautious, positive news. But now we must continue to wait and see what the further examinations at the hospital reveal. Then, at the restart, Danilo was also hit so hard by another rider that he was injured as well. Although he was still able to finish the race, based on the examinations in the medical centre afterwards, it was decided that he would not be allowed to start race two. We wish both our riders a good and speedy recovery and will support them as much as possible throughout their recovery process. On the technical side, we will now analyse the positive findings from the weekend ahead of Most in order to continue our upward trend.”

Christian Gonschor, Technical Director BMW Motorrad Motorsport: “First and foremost, we wish both riders a speedy recovery and hope for their quick return so that we can build on the strong performances from Saturday here in Hungary together again in Most. We were very pleased to see Miguel deliver a very strong qualifying performance and, by the end of the day, clearly demonstrate our podium potential with third place in the main race. The qualifying could have been even better: without the yellow flags, Miguel would have taken second place. That clearly shows that we have a highly competitive team and rider line-up. Unfortunately, on Sunday we were unable to carry that strong performance into the Superpole Race and race two due to a chain of unfortunate circumstances. With both riders unable to continue, a highly promising weekend came to an end. However, we can travel to Most with plenty of confidence and hope to fight for the podium again there with two fit riders, in order to keep the championship exciting. When everything comes together, we are the second-strongest force behind the Ducati factory team. We will continue fighting for podiums and, hopefully soon, for victories again, and we are looking forward to making the most of our bike’s strengths in Most. We remain optimistic about the future, even though this Sunday was a very difficult one.”

 

Facts and figures.

Superpole.

Air temperature: 21°, track temperature: 34°, humidity: 36%, conditions: dry.

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Time
1.	Nicolò Bulega (ITA)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	1:38.094
2.	Lorenzo Baldassari (ITA)	Team Goeleven	Ducati	1:38.702
3.	Yari Montella (ITA)	Barni Spark Racing Team	Ducati	1:38.719
4.	Miguel Oliveira (POR)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	1:38.867
5.	Iker Lecuona (ESP)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	1:38.878
13.	Danilo Petrucci  ITA)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	1:39.533

 

Race 1.

Air temperature: 23°, track temperature: 40°, humidity: 35%, conditions: dry, laps: 21.

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Gap
1.	Nicolò Bulega (ITA)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	-
2.	Iker Lecuona (ESP)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	2.538
3.	Miguel Oliveira (POR)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	12.584
4.	Yari Montella (ITA)	Barni Spark Racing Team	Ducati	14.077
5.	Álvaro Bautista (ESP)	Barni Spark Racing Team	Ducati	15.032
11.	Danilo Petrucci (ITA)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	28.643

Fastest race lap: Nicolò Bulega, lap 2, 1:38.783 (new record)

 

Superpole Race.

Air temperature: 20°, track temperature: 35°, humidity: 37%, conditions: dry, laps: 8 (after red flag).

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Gap
1.	Nicolò Bulega (ITA)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	-
2.	Iker Lecuona (ESP)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	0.894
3.	Lorenzo Baldassari (ITA)	Team Goeleven	Ducati	5.103
4.	Álvaro Bautista (ESP)	Barni Spark Racing Team	Ducati	7.955
5.	Yari Montella (ITA)	Barni Spark Racing Team	Ducati	8.647
16.	Danilo Petrucci (ITA)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	18.736
DNS	Miguel Oliveira (POR)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	-

Fastest race lap: Nicolò Bulega, lap 3, 1:38.230 (new record)

 

Race 2.

Air temperature: 23°, track temperature: 41°, humidity: 29%, conditions: dry, laps: 21.

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Gap
1.	Nicolò Bulega (ITA)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	-
2.	Iker Lecuona (ESP)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	2.558
3.	Yari Montella (ITA)	Barni Spark Racing Team	Ducati	11.970
4.	Lorenzo Baldassari (ITA)	Team Goeleven	Ducati	12.478
5.	Garrett Gerloff (USA)	Kawasaki WorldSBK Team	Kawasaki	24.903
DNS	Danilo Petrucci (ITA)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	-
DNS	Miguel Oliveira (POR)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	-

Fastest race lap: Nicolò Bulega, lap 2, 1:38.569

 

Current riders’ classification (R04/12, after 12 of 36 races).

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1.	Nicolò Bulega (ITA)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	248
2.	Iker Lecuona (ESP)	Aruba.it Racing - Ducati	Ducati	166 (-82)
3.	Sam Lowes (GBR)	ELF Marc VDS Racing Team	Ducati	99 (-149)
4.	Miguel Oliveira (POR)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	85 (-163)
5.	Yari Montella (ITA)	Barni Spark Racing Team	Ducati	82 (-166)
11.	Danilo Petrucci (ITA)	ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	BMW	46 (-202)

 

Current manufacturers’ classification (R04/12, after 12 of 36 races).

Pos.	Manufacturer	Points
1.	Ducati	248
2.	Bimota	108 (-140)
3.	BMW	92 (-156)
4.	Yamaha	73 (-175)
5.	Kawasaki	40 (-208)
6.	Honda	12 (-236)

 

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2026

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