Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) signed his name on another sterling performance in his much-improved sophomore MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season The most recent chapter of the 2026 campaign saw him shine at his home Misano World Circuit "Marco Simoncelli" during the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round, where he secured his second podium hat trick in three rounds with a trio of third-place finishes.
After Montella’s maiden WorldSBK Misano podium success on Saturday, he started the Tissot Superpole Race on Sunday from P4, and a head full of steam to finish ahead of his rivals for third place in the Riders’ Championship, Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team), who started one position farther forward in P3. At lights out, Montella completed a move on the #22 into Turn 1 and went to work from there. He carved out a seven-tenths gap by Lap 3. By the end of Lap 5, the #22 had retired with a technical issue. Behind Montella, Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) gave chase behind the #5, but nearly three seconds back, a gap which would only grow as the race continued and the #67 battled with his countryman Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team). In the end, Montella kept his eyes on the prize and started Sunday with a bronze medal in P3, finishing more than four seconds clear of Bassani in P4.
“THE TYRES STAYED HOT IN THE SLIPSTREAM, SO WHEN I WAS IN AXEL’S SLIPSTREAM, I HAD NO CHANCE TO OVERTAKE”
As a result of his P3 earlier in the day, Montella started the round’s final race from the front row. This time, however, it was Bassani who got the better jump off the line from P4, passing him on the run into Turn 1 and cutting the nose of the #5 on the lean into the corner. Moments later, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) took his chance to get past as well on the gradual Turn 3. As the #55 made his way past, Alex Lowes followed him through, shuffling him to sixth, and making bar-to-bar contact on the way through, producing a big moment on the brakes into Turn 4 for the Italian as he struggled to bring his wobbling Ducati Panigale V4R back under control. Somehow, he managed to get his bike back in order without losing a position and set off over the next two laps to recover P5 and P4 from ‘Loka’ and the #22. Riding in P4 by Lap 3, Montella trailed Bassani by eight tenths. It was tough sledding for the #5 to try to retake the position, as he had worked the gap down to two tenths, but with high temperatures affecting his grip on track, he struggled to make the decisive move. Four laps later, he was still behind the #47, the gap back up to seven tenths. Montella’s breakthrough moment came on Lap 16. As he maintained pressure on the Bimota rider, the gap hovering around half a second, the #47 suddenly lost the front at the “Quercia” Turn 8, and, now riding in P3, he dashed home to seal his second hat trick of the season.
On his pair of podiums on Sunday, Montella said: “It was an amazing Sunday, hard, but really strong. At the end, the afternoon’s Race 2 was completely different to Saturday. I was struggling a bit more with the increased wind and hotter conditions. I lost a bit of speed at the start of the race, then Axel covered the line, and Alex touched me a bit, so I lost a few positions. From there, I changed my strategy to try to recover positions. In these hot conditions, when you’re in the slipstream, the tyre temperatures stay high. As a result, while I was in Axel’s slipstream, I had no chance to try to overtake him. When I was near him, I didn’t have the right feeling to try an overtake. I was mentally ready to finish fourth, but near the end, I decided to push and try to put some pressure on him. I was around half a second behind him, and I don’t know if it worked, but he made a mistake in these unforgiving conditions. It was windy from behind coming into Turn 8 and easy to make a mistake there, but I am so sorry for him, because I know what it means to lose a podium position. We worked so so hard all weekend, I’m very proud of the work from the team.”
“I HAVE A GOAL OF FINISHING THIRD IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP”
With five rounds to play, Montella’s 2026 speed has been a revelation not only to the paddock at large, but seemingly to him and his team as he reiterates how fighting for third in the World Championship standings was far from their expectations at the start of the season. To reach that goal, Montella’s biggest competition at the moment are the Lowes brothers, Alex, 14 points behind him in P4, and Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team), only eight points farther back in fifth. Montella will have his hands full in the round to come, however, as while the brothers were kept off the podium at Montella’s home round in Italy, next round the British riders will have the home-track advantage as the field takes on Donington Park starting on Friday, July 10th.
On what the result in his home country means to him and to his Riders’ Championship bronze medal goal, Montella said: “I’m so proud, I want to thank everyone for their support. I just want to enjoy this moment, not only right now with this podium, but this moment in my career. I’m so focused on always riding better and doing my best every time I ride my bike on the track. I have the goal of finishing third in the Championship. It would be nice, because it wasn’t in our preseason plans for sure, but anyway, we are there, so we are dancing. We just need to continue to enjoy like that.”
Montella will return on July 10th at Donington Park! Until then, catch up on this season and the Championship’s rich history with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 50% off!