Ducati swept to a dominant treble victory in the opening round of the 2026 British Superbike Championship after Kyle Ryde saw off the competition to sweep the board at Oulton Park.
A spectacular opening salvo for Ryde as he begins his pursuit to make it three BSB titles on the bounce, the Mansfield rider achieved the feat on his first competitive outing aboard Ducati Panigale V4 R machinery.
On a broadly dominant weekend for the Ducati contingent, Leon Haslam complemented Ryde with a trio of second place results on the Moto Rapido Ducati entry, while Scott Redding (Hager PBM) and Storm Stacey (AJN Bathams) also collected a brace of top five results.
With Oulton Park marking the first appearance of Nitrous Competitions Racing as part of the Ducati fold, Ryde made good on pre-season testing performances to dominant the weekend from start-to-finish.
Scoring pole position on Sunday, he converted that into victory during race one, before achieving the feat again in race two and race three on a thrilling weekend of Bank Holiday competition.
He was pushed all the way on each occasion by Haslam, the experienced hand keeping Ryde honest as he joined his stablemate in locking out a podium spot in each encounter.
Indeed, Ducati riders went on to fill four of the top five positions in each race, with Redding collecting two fourths and a fifth for his efforts, while Stacey – also making his debut on Ducati machinery – impressing with his fourth, fifth and seventh place results.
Despite a tough weekend that began with a crash in qualifying, Glenn Irwin on the second Nitrous Competitions entry ended the event on a high with a run to fifth in race three.
The results leave Ducati in a similarly commanding position in the overall standings with the first of the season’s eleven events completed, Ryde leading Haslam by six points, while Redding and Stacey place fourth and fifth.
The second round of the season will take place at Donington Park on 15-17 May.
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- Motorcycles
- Ducati Motorcycles