FIM Supersport World Championship leader Albert Arenas continued his streak of finishing on the podium at least once in every round of the 2026 season to date as he narrowly missed out on victory in a last lap battle at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
Starting from second on the grid, Arenas (AS BLU CRU Racing) took the lead early on and despite some first lap challenges from Can Öncü (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) the Spaniard would establish himself as the man to beat early on.
In fact, Arenas would go on to lead until the final lap, when rival Valentin Debise made a pass on Misano’s iconic Curvone corner. Despite this, Arenas refused to give up and made an ambitious pass into the last corner, but was unable to keep his line allowing Debise to beat him to the line, leaving Arenas to take second for the third consecutive race.
Öncü, who had been in touch with the leading duo for the first half of the race, dropped back towards the end but was able to fend off several challenges from behind to return to the podium in third.
Roberto Garcia (GMT94 Yamaha) was able to recover from a difficult Superpole to finish the race in tenth, while Aldi Satya Mahendra (AS BLU CRU Racing) took 12th. The second GMT94 Yamaha of Lucas Mahis retired from the race early on. Yuki Okamoto (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) finished 20th.
With the second quickest lap of the race, Arenas will start Race 2 from second on the grid. Aldi Satya Mahendra improves his grid position to eighth, and will be joined on the front row by Öncü in ninth.
Arenas’ second place now sees him atop of the championship standings by 38 points.
RACE 1 RESULTS
STARTING GRID FOR RACE 2
Albert Arenas (AS BLU CRU Racing) – Race 1: 2nd, Championship: 1st (226 points)
“It was a strong race for us, after the beginning with the group I decided to push to see if we could make a gap and while we gapped the group Valentin could keep the pace to come with me. There was a bit of a headwind down the straight which hampered me and probably helped Valentin as he did not have it because of the slip stream, so this helped him to stay with me and overtake me on the last lap. I tried everything I could on the last corner to take the win, it was a bit of a ‘dive bomb’ but in the end I could not make it work but I wanted to try! I will watch the race back tonight to see if there’s anything we can do differently, as it is frustrating to keep finishing second but I need to not allow myself to get frustrated, as second place is a good result but of course, we want to win!”
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