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Just two kilometres from the Adriatic coast, MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship fans will flock to Misano for the second round on Italian soil in 2025. Just over an hour away from Bologna’s Ducati headquarters, count on ‘Ducatisti’ in droves to be making their presence felt all weekend. Considering 2024’s BMW hat-trick thanks to Toprak Razgatlioglu's (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) dominant performance back in 2024, this season’s Misano showdown with Ducati factory rider Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) is set to provide a bounty of race action

Only Philip Island (73) and Assen (71) have hosted more WorldSBK races than Misano. The Italian circuit is tied with Donington Park for the third most races hosted at a single track, with 67. While historically Ducati has dominated at the circuit, with a total of 37 wins at the Bolognese manufacturer’s home round, Misano’s most successful rider is Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha), whose eight wins put him two ahead of Troy Bayliss and Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati), who have six wins apiece.

An interesting aspect of racing at Misano is the importance of a strong Superpole session to earn a good starting grid position, which carries particular weight at Misano. Not only have the last 15 winners all started within the first five positions, but only once has a rider won at Misano having started from outside the top 10, a feat achieved by Ruben Xaus on a Ducati back in 2003.

SECTOR BY SECTOR: Misano’s key corners

At lights out, riders shoot off the line towards the opening T1 chicane, requiring bravery to claim a good position as the grid squeezes into the right-handed opening corner. A slow-speed left-handed T2 sends the field towards the gradual T3 and later the tight ‘Curva del Rio’ loop, concluding the first sector. Upon the exit of ‘Curva del Rio’s overtaking hotspot, Turn 6’s slow left-handed corner spits riders out onto an arcing straight, confounded by the T7 kink as riders look for the best line to take into the T8 hairpin ‘Curva Quercia’. Following another subtle right-handed kink, riders enter the ‘Tramonto’ hairpin, a heavy braking zone and overtaking hotspot. On the exit of the T10 hairpin, riders enter the back straight, building speed into the famous right-handed T11 ‘Curvone’. A high speed, wide turn allows riders to carry speed into another gradual righthanded T12, before getting sharper and sharper through T13 and entering the T14 ‘Curva del Carro’ loop.

After the tight T14 lies a difficult final sector to close out the lap. While maintaining good corner speed, riders simultaneously have to pick up the bike and get on the throttle, while also maintaining spatial awareness to choose a line that allows them to protect their position in the final T16 overtaking hotspot, ‘Curva Misano’. A near-90º left turn, riders put a knee down before giving the bike full gas to fly across the line ahead of their adversaries.

Coming into the three right-hand corners, if you can do that part well, it’s quite a nice feeling, but if it’s not done well, it's quite hard” – Redding on Sector 3

Misano’s third sector is the favourite of Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO Racing), who this season reunited with Ducati machinery for the first time since 2021. On the track’s third sector, Redding said, “I like sector three, coming out of the back straight into the three right-hand corners. If you can do that part well, it’s quite a nice feeling, but if it’s not done well, it's quite hard because you’re trying to turn the bike with the brake, then back shifting gears. When there is grip you can go really fast, but when the grip drops you start to struggle with lap times many things make this track unique, it has hard braking, change of direction, long corners and fast corners without being on the gas which is something you don’t see a lot on circuits The fans here are really enthusiastic which makes it really nice to race here at Misano.”

Redding will look to repeat or even build on his trio of P4s he earned back in 2021 at Misano, the last time he competed on the track before his move to BMW machinery.  Sectors of the track like the high-speed ‘Curvone’ are reminiscent of Phillip Island’s high-speed layout. This factor may play in favour of the British rider who nearly replicated his 2021 Misano P4 hat-trick at Phillip Island this season with two P4s and a Race 1 P5.

Tune in and see how Redding and the rest of the field fare at Misano this weekend, June 13-15^th with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 30% off!