The all-new 2026 Yamaha R7 took two podiums on its debut in the FIM Sportbike World Championship at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli this past weekend in the hands of Australian rider Carter Thompson.
The FIM Sportbike World Championship (WorldSPB) was introduced to the FIM Superbike World Championship roster as its new entry-level category for 2026, with the first round taking place at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimão back in March.
With the new, model year 2026 not available until Spring, Yamaha teams started the championship with the previous year’s model and despite some teething issues in the opening rounds with the all-new class, Yamaha-mounted riders made significant progress in the first few rounds, culminating in Carter Thompson taking the R7’s first podium in the class at Motorland Aragon at the end of May.
A bold decision saw the Italian-run BrCorse team switch to the all-new bike for the fifth round of the championship at Misano without prior testing, and it was a decision which paid off with Thompson and team-mate Marco Gaggi demonstrating a clear step forward over the weekend. Securing fourth on the grid for the opening race saw Thompson in an ideal position to fight for the win, and had it not been for a moment at Turn 10 on the final lap of the race he had a chance of securing the R7’s first victory – instead, in a frenetic dash to the line the Australian finished third, marking a podium finish first time out for the all-new machine.
Starting second on the grid for Race 2, Thompson fought for victory throughout the 12-lap race, eventually crossing the line second missing out on the win by just 0.039 seconds to round out a strong weekend with the new R7. Thompson’ team-mate, Marco Gaggi also had a season-best weekend with an eighth-place finish in Race 2.
Carter Thompson
“The team and Yamaha have put a lot of effort in to get the new bike ready for this weekend, and it’s definitely been a good step forward for us so I can’t thank them enough. We laid some positive groundwork with the old bike, but the new bike seems to be a step forward in every areas, especially in allowing a bit more flexibility for us to perfect the set up. We’ve got a bit of a break now ahead of Magny-Cours, and in this time we ave some testing planned so hopefully there’s a bit more to find and we can come back even stronger in Magny-Cours.”
Niccolò Canepa, Road Racing Sporting Manager, Yamaha Motor Europe
“It was a big decision from the BrCorse team to run the new bike when it was available without testing before and there was a lot of work to get the bike ready for the weekend. However, this decision worked out nicely as it was the best weekend yet for the team with Carter Thompson taking a second and third place, with Gaggi also taking a season-best result. This shows the potential of the new bike, and for sure there is margin for improvement as it was the first race with no testing, so we can extract more out of the package but the fact Thompson was fighting for victory in both races shows the potential is there. Congratulations to Carter and the team for an amazing weekend!
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