In 2025, Bimota returned to international motorcycle racing and is once again competing in the FIM WorldSBK Championship in 2026 with the KB998 Rimini.
At the end of the 2025 season, Alex Lowes finished sixth and Axel Bassani tenth in the World Championship standings. A highly respectable result for the team’s debut season.
The start of the 2026 campaign was spectacular and full of promise. In the Superpole Race, Axel Bassani finished second, while Alex Lowes secured third place. In Sunday’s second feature race, Bassani again delivered an outstanding performance, finishing second behind Ducati rider Nicola Bulega. Alex Lowes crashed on lap 18 and failed to finish.
The second race weekend in Portimão, on Portugal’s Algarve coast, ended with three fourth-place finishes for Alex Lowes and three eighth-place finishes for Axel Bassani. Lowes missed the podium in both the Superpole Race and Sunday’s main race by only a few tenths of a second. In the championship standings, Bassani occupied third place with 60 points, while Lowes was fifth with 48 points.
At Assen, the Ducatis were once again unbeatable. Nicolò Bulega won all three races ahead of Iker Lecuona, Sam Lowes and Álvaro Bautista. In both Saturday’s race and the Superpole Race, Alex Lowes was the best non-Ducati rider, finishing fifth on each occasion.
The race weekend at Balaton Park in Hungary proved disappointing for Bimota. Alex Lowes managed a sixth-place finish in Race 1 and seventh place in the Superpole Race but retired from Race 2. Axel Bassani could do no better than 17th and 15th places in the first two races and also failed to finish the second feature race.
At Most, the Bimota riders on the KB998 were considerably more competitive. Bassani finished fifth in Race 1, while both riders consistently ran around sixth place throughout the weekend. Although they still lacked a little pace compared to the leading Ducatis, Bimota firmly established itself among the front-running group.
Aragón has so far been one of Bimota’s strongest events of the 2026 season. Alex Lowes finished fourth, fifth and fourth in the three races and was at times even challenging for a podium position. Bassani recorded two fifth-place finishes and one sixth-place finish. Bimota also topped several practice sessions during the weekend and regularly featured at the very front of the timing sheets.
At its home round in Misano, the Bimota team once again demonstrated competitive pace and fought for podium positions. Fourth and fifth places in Race 1, followed by Lowes finishing fourth in Race 2, were solid results. However, Bassani’s crash in Sunday’s second main race prevented the team from achieving an even better overall result. Once again, Nicolo Bulega on a Ducati won all three races.
On the second weekend of July, the WSBK championship travelled to England. Saturday did not go entirely to plan for the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team at Donington Park. Lowes finished seventh and Bassani ninth, leaving room for a significant improvement on Sunday. In the Superpole Race, Lowes and Bassani finished fourth and fifth respectively. They swapped positions in the second main race. Bassani fought his way up to fourth place, finishing just 0.24 seconds ahead of his teammate Lowes. However, all three podium positions went to Ducati riders.
For the next round of the 2026 Superbike World Championship, Bimota travelled to Magny-Cours in France from 4 to 6 September. It was a weekend of mixed fortunes for the team. In Race 1, Lowes finished seventh and Bassani ninth. Lowes confirmed his good form in the Superpole Race with a fifth-place finish, while Bassani crossed the line in eleventh. Sunday’s second race brought a setback. Lowes crashed but was classified 13th despite the incident. Bassani finished ninth. Following the French round, Alex Lowes ranked fourth in the overall standings with 201 points, while Bassani was seventh with 169 points.
Bimota’s second home round of the season was the tenth WorldSBK round, held in Cremona at the end of September. Both riders finished in the top ten on Saturday. Lowes narrowly missed out on fifth place, while Bassani secured valuable points with an eighth-place finish. In the sprint race, Bassani was forced off the track by another rider on the second lap and dropped back to 16th place. Lowes finished sixth. Sunday’s second main race went better. Lowes took fifth place, while Bassani finished ninth. Overall, Cremona was a solid, if not outstanding, weekend for Bimota. Ducati rider Nicolo Bulega clinched the 2026 World Championship title in Cremona with rounds to spare.
The penultimate round of the WorldSBK season took place at Estoril, Portugal, from 9 to 11 October. Alex Lowes impressed in qualifying and finished fifth in the first main race. Axel Bassani took seventh place. In the sprint race, Lowes lost several positions following contact with another rider and could only finish eleventh. He then crashed in the second main race and failed to finish. Sunday went better for Bassani, who secured sixth place in the sprint race and fifth in the second main race. In the riders’ standings, Alex Lowes ranked fourth with 237 points, while Axel Bassani was seventh with 208 points.
The season finale took place in Jerez, Spain, from 16 to 18 October 2026. For the occasion, Bimota gave its KB 998 a special black-and-gold “Nero” livery, although the striking design did not translate into particularly impressive results. In Saturday’s main race, Alex Lowes finished eighth and Axel Bassani twelfth. Lowes performed better on Sunday: after taking fifth place in the sprint race, he finished seventh in the final main race. Axel Bassani also improved, following up his twelfth-place finish in the sprint race with eighth place in the second main race.
In the final championship standings, Bassani finished seventh with 222 points, while Lowes took fifth place with 259 points, making him the highest-placed rider who was not on a Ducati. Seven of the ten highest-placed riders competed on a Panigale V4 R. Ducati therefore secured the world title and placed three additional riders in the top four. Although Bimota is still unable to match the Ducatis of the leading teams, it can at least finish ahead of some Ducati Panigale V4 R machines, as well as riders on BMW, Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki machinery.
| Datum / Rennen | Rennstrecke | Land | Platzierung Alex Lowes # 22 | Platzierung Axel Bassani # 47 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21.02.2026 Rennen 1 | Phillip Island | Australien | 7 | 4 |
| 22.02.2026 Superpole | Phillip Island | Australien | 3 | 2 |
| 22.02.2026 Rennen 2 | Phillip Island | Australien | – | 2 |
| 28.03.2026 Rennen 1 | Portimao | Portugal | 4 | 8 |
| 29.03.2026 Superpole | Portimao | Portugal | 4 | 8 |
| 29.03.2026 Rennen 2 | Portimao | Portugal | 4 | 8 |
| 18.04.2026 Rennen 1 | Assen | Niederlande | 5 | 12 |
| 19.04.2026 Superpole | Assen | Niederlande | 5 | 18 |
| 19.04.2026 Rennen 2 | Assen | Niederlande | 11 | 13 |
| 02.05.2026 Rennen 1 | Balaton Park | Ungarn | 6 | 17 |
| 03.05.2026 Superpole | Balaton Park | Ungarn | 7 | 15 |
| 03.05.2026 Rennen 2 | Balaton Park | Ungarn | – | – |
| 16.05.2026 Rennen 1 | Most | Tschechien | 7 | 5 |
| 17.05.2026 Superpole | Most | Tschechien | 9 | 13 |
| 17.05.2026 Rennen 2 | Most | Tschechien | 7 | 8 |
| 30.05.2026 Rennen 1 | Aragon | Spanien | 4 | 5 |
| 31.05.2026 Superpole | Aragon | Spanien | 5 | 6 |
| 31.05.2026 Rennen 2 | Aragon | Spanien | 4 | 5 |
| 13.06.2026 Rennen 1 | Misano | Italien | 5 | 4 |
| 14.06.2026 Superpole | Misano | Italien | – | 4 |
| 14.06.2026 Rennen 2 | Misano | Italien | 4 | – |
| 11.07.2026 Rennen 1 | Donington Park | England | 7 | 9 |
| 12.07.2026 Superpole | Donington Park | England | 4 | 5 |
| 12.07.2026 Rennen 1 | Donington Park | England | 5 | 4 |
| 05.09.2026 Rennen 1 | Magny Cours | Frankreich | 5 | 7 |
| 06.09.2026 Superpole | Magny Cours | Frankreich | 5 | 11 |
| 06.09.2026 Rennen 2 | Magny Cours | Frankreich | 13 | 9 |
| 26.09.2026 Rennen 1 | Cremona | Italien | 6 | 8 |
| 27.09.2026 Superpole | Cremona | Italien | 6 | 16 |
| 27.09.2026 Rennen 2 | Cremona | Italien | 5 | 9 |
| 10.10.2026 Rennen 1 | Estoril | Portugal | 5 | 7 |
| 11.10.2026 Superpole | Estoril | Portugal | 11 | 6 |
| 11.10.2026 Rennen 2 | Estoril | Portugal | – | 5 |
| 17.10.2026 Rennen 1 | Jerez | Spanien | 8 | 10 |
| 18.10.2026 Superpole | Jerez | Spanien | 5 | 12 |
| 18.10.2026 Rennen 2 | Jerez | Spanien | 7 | 8 |