British rider Jake Dixon (Honda HRC) improved day by day at Round 10’s Cremona Circuit to notch his and Honda’s best results of the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season so far. Dixon is steadily settling in atop his CBR 1000RR-R SP as he puts more laps down now back from his injury, which ruled him out for almost the entire first half of the season. The Englishman started hot with P9 on Saturday, tying his previous WorldSBK-best result from his 2017 debut wildcard appearance before finding even more pace Sunday afternoon with a new personal best of sixth place.
SUPERPOLE STRUGGLES TO PERSONAL BEST RACE 1
He struggled in the early going, taking a P18 qualification from the Tissot Superpole session, but a tremendous jump off the line at lights out in Race 1 saw him start Lap 2 seven positions farther forward to ride in P11. He dropped behind Stefano Manzi (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) that lap, but struck back four laps later at Turn 8 to recover the position from the Italian. He took the scalp of Manzi’s Australian teammate Remy Gardner on Lap 7 on the run down the back straight into Turn 11 and benefited from Alberto Surra's crash ahead of him on Lap 9 to finish in P9. He was happy with the result, but he felt that he could have soared even higher on Saturday.
“I CAME HOME WITH MY FRONT AND REAR TYRES COMPLETELY BURNT FROM THE HALF RACE DISTANCE”
Dixon snapped up his opportunity to make up for his poor Superpole result in the Tissot Superpole Race. This time around he started from P17 after Gardner was ruled unfit earlier in the morning. The #96 started Lap 2 from P15 after Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) made contact with Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) and sent the two riders tumbling into the gravel. On Lap 2, he collected another set of places after he passed his teammate Somkiat Chantra, Alvaro Bautista's (Barni Spark Racing Team) Turn 6 crash and Italian riders Manzi and Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) fell back to the back of the grid. He kept grinding as the race continued and was rewarded by taking places from Pata Maxus Yamaha teammates Xavi Vierge on Lap 6, and Andrea Locatelli on Lap 8 to finish in P9; his first ever point in a Superpole Race.
On his Superpole Race recovery, Dixon said: “I don’t know how I managed to climb up so far. I had a good feeling with the bike, I made some good overtakes and got lucky with some riders going down, and I was able to put some good results in. I’m super proud, I think it shows the hard work that Honda’s doing. I’m super happy, it felt like a win today. I came home with my front and rear tyres completely burnt after the half-race distance, after I tried to stay with the front group as long as possible. I think we can all hold our heads high and be proud. Hopefully from now until Estoril we can get some more updates as the test team with Jonny in the UK and at the HQ in Japan are working hard.”
“I GET TO SEE THAT EFFORT BEHIND THE SCENES AND FINALLY NOW IT’S STARTING TO SHOW”
Race 2 saw Dixon start from an improved P9, and while he fell a position to P10 out of the gate, he recovered after Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) crashed out from P5 ahead of him at Lap 2’s Turn 10. He later took positions on Turns 4 and 5 after cutting inside past Gerloff and Tommy Bridewell (Superbikes Advocates), who crashed out from one position ahead of him at Turn 10. Dixon kept the hammer down from there, setting his best lap of 1’29.111s on Lap 9, and benefited from a Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) spill on Lap 11 to move to P6, where he went on to finish the race.
On his strongest weekend yet, Dixon was effusive with praise to his team: “It’s not easy around here definitely, the team gave me a great bike this weekend. They’ve been working hard in the background to bring things to help me feel better. Step by step, we’ve made good progress from the tests we’ve done. I don’t think they get enough credit; I think they get slandered a lot in the media, and I don’t think it’s deserved because they’re working super hard behind the scenes. I get to see that effort behind the scenes and finally now it’s starting to show. I’m finally fully fit, and step by step we’re trying to make more headway.”
Can Dixon keep raising the bar across the final two rounds? Tune in to find out at Estoril starting on October 9th with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now just €9.99!