Matteo Vannucci (Revo-M2) hit his mark on Saturday afternoon at Autodrom Most as the 21-year-old landed his first FIM Sportbike World Championship race win after fighting in the podium battle all season so far. His win further cements not only his pace as a rider as he continues to perform at the front in the new category but confirming the pace of his team’s Aprilia RS 660 Factory, and earning the manufacturer their first victory in the paddock since 2018 in Superstock 1000 with Maximilian Schieb.
Vannucci was one of the big-ticket riders to have made the jump from the WorldSSP300 Championship to World Sportbike. He closed last season on a hellacious run through the last four rounds, landing three wins and five podiums across the final eight races of WorldSSP300. He’s brought that speed to bear in WorldSPB in 2026, claiming the new Championship’s first pole position and a podium across the category’s first four races prior to Most, yet his first win proved elusive.
A DESPERATE COMEBACK
At Most, he missed his second pole by just eight hundredths of a second, outpaced by David Salvador's (Team ProDina Kawasaki XCI) time of 1’39.473s. not to be denied, Vannucci flew forward to lead the first lap, but Salvador hung close behind the #91’s back wheel like a shadow. The Spaniard doggedly pursued Vannucci, clocking in within a tenth of a second behind the Italian for every lap of the race when disaster struck for the Aprilia rider on Lap 11. After setting a 1’39.774s best lap on Lap 10, the Italian made a mistake on Lap 11, switching the bike into neutral in the middle of the T1-T2 chicane, costing him more than a second and dropping him to P4 late in the contest. As tyre treads wore down late in the race, Vannucci got to work as he took P3 by braking later than Antonio Torres (Team ProDina Kawasaki XCI), then into Turn 1 into the last lap, he took a wider line and got on the brakes hard to eek past Jeffrey Buis (Track & Trades Wixx Racing) for P2. He pulled bar to bar with Salvador as they opened up the throttle and outgunned him in the high-speed corners of the second into the third sector to charge to his first win of WorldSPB’s maiden season.
On his Race 1 win, Vannucci said: “Race 1 was amazing for me. I finished in P1 despite a mistake on the last lap. I put the bike in neutral by mistake. I tried to stay calm after that, and I worked hard to push and try to cut down the gap to the front when I could. I was able to do that, and I’m happy to have gotten the win. I’m super happy for the win, and I’m grateful to the team for their hard work.”
A P4 INHERITANCE
Race 2 was a more complicated affair for the #91 as he slid down the order from his P2 starting position to finish the first lap in P5. He shuffled Salvador and Bruno Ieraci (CM Triumph Factory Racing) aside over the next two laps to climb to his highest position in the race of P3. The pair made their way back through on the Italian on the subsequent Lap 4, and while he remained stuck one position farther back across the final laps of the race, late crashes from Kas Beekmans (VLR Racing Team Suzuki) and Xavi Artigas (MTM Kawasaki) slotted him farther up the final timesheet to finish P4. His results over the weekend saw him climb from P6 in the Riders’ Championship after Balaton to P4 after Most.
Vannucci returns to fight with the rest of the WorldSPB field at MotorLand Aragon, kicking off on May 29th! Don’t miss a moment with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 30% off!