FIM Supersport World Championship title contender Jaume Masia (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) sent himself back up onto the rostrum after a six-race podium drought in emphatic fashion, winning the closing race of his home round at MotorLand Aragon. The result is a welcome one for the Spaniard, who has regained second place in the Riders’ Championship with the arrival at the midpoint of the 2026 season.
A BUMPY LANDING IN ALCANIZ
His home round started with an ignominious P7-earning 1’53.698s Tissot Superpole session time, which improved to P6 after Can Oncu’s (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) back of the grid penalty applied by FIM WorldSBK Stewards for a yellow flag procedure infringement during Warm Up 1. By Lap 10 of Race 1, Masia had made his way up to P5, but struggled on the long back straight, where he found himself outpaced by other riders’ lap after lap. By Lap 11, Masia was within a second of his countryman Roberto Garcia (GMT94 Yamaha); that margin grew to 1.3s a lap later, 2.1s by Lap 13, eventually crossing the line 2.2s behind Garcia for P5.
“In Race 1, I was desperate…thankfully, we found something”
Race 2, however, was just what the doctor ordered for the 25-year-old. Despite a P7 starting position and a poor jump off the line to sit P11 at the start of the second lap, Masia kept his composure. He made up at least one position per lap, including taking two positions each lap on Lap 4 and Lap 5, sending himself up to P4 by Lap 6. He had a tough time catching up to Aldi Mahendra (AS BLU CRU Racing Team), his margin holding around half a second behind the Indonesian until, at last, on Lap 12, he and Matteo Ferrari (WRP Racing) found a way through. Biding his time in P3, the #5 sprung a big move down the inside on the run into Turn 1 of the penultimate lap, overtaking Garcia and Championship leader Albert Arenas (AS BLU CRU Racing Team) to leap momentarily into P1. Arenas retook the lead on Turn 5, but, making a similar Turn 1 move on the final lap, Masia stretched his bike’s legs on the back straight to pull away from Arenas and seal his fifth win in the class.
On what’s changed from the last two rounds to now, Masia said: “In Race 1, I was desperate and seeing lots of riders ride away on the back straight, thankfully, the thing we found on the bike helped us find a bit extra. I think I’m a good rider. I set the fastest lap at Most, and at Hungary, a rider took me out. It was my mistake to start from the back, and it was my mistake the crash at Most, but we are back now, and we’re enjoying this moment.”
“I said sorry for the poor start to the weekend…Saturday night, we found a good solution”
Masia will hope that his winning form is here to stay as the WorldSSP field moves into the latter half of their 2026 season with the #5 trailing Arenas by 40 points in the Riders’ Championship. While the World Supersport field has no shortage of talented Italian riders who will take on their home round with pride, Masia has enjoyed recent success at Misano, taking a P2 double in 2025. If he were to repeat, as long as the pair of silver medals weren’t a step lower on the rostrum from the #75, he could smile wide at Misano and continue to cut down Arenas’s Championship lead while he still has time.
On how he turned his weekend around at Aragon, Masia said: “I want to say sorry to my team for the poor start to the weekend. I’m getting tired of these poor starting positions. In the race, I tried to stay focused and bring home a good result for them. Saturday night, we found a good solution that we confirmed in the Warm Up. I enjoyed Race 2 a lot; I overtook lots of riders and felt competitive again. We’ll see in the rest of the season, but we’ll enjoy this one for sure.”
Masia and Arenas are all set to throw down at Misano on June 12th! Tune in Live or OnDemand with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 50% off!