2026 British Superbikes: Donington Park – Practice Results

Kyle Ryde topped Pre-Qualifying with a new lap record and lead the riders into Q2 for the second BSB round of the season, at Donington Park.

The final session of the day saw the Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Ducati rider take back over at the top, securing his automatic Q2 spot in style, with a new outright lap record of 1m 26.701s, building on his triple victory to start the season at Oulton Park.

It was only the session before that Max Cook had set a new record lap of his own, backed up by second, just 0.063 slower on the bimota.

Cook and Scott Redding both left it late to leave the pits but made the most of their time on track. The Hager PBM Ducati rider was able to pick up one place at the chequered flag, finishing third.

Fourth went to Glenn Irwin, who improved massively following Redding around on the second Nitrous Competitions bike, while managing an arm issue.

Leon Haslam was working on his bike issues while securing fifth on the Moto Rapido Ducati, the first rider over half a second away from the new benchmark lap.

Charlie Nesbitt made huge gains in the final session of the day for sixth for TAG Honda, as did Andrew Irwin on his way to seventh for MET fonaCAB Racing.

Ryan Vickers picked up the pace for eighth for Honda to place eighth, ahead of Bradley Ray, who had issues to iron out after his crash earlier in the day, so feels there is more to come than his ninth on day one suggests for McAMS Yamaha.

Christian Iddon completed the top ten for Sencat Yamaha.

The final two Q2 places went to rookie Joe Talbot, his experience at the one round he took part in as a replacement at Donington in 2025 at the end of the season helping the rookie to 11th, completing a strong opening day for bimota, with Storm Stacey having a nervous wait in 12th.

Sat in the garage after his exhaust issues from Oulton Park returned, the Bathams AJN Steelstock rider was in the final Q2 spot.

A speedy run out of the pits saw the Ducati rider out on track for a final flying laps, with seven second to spare, but it was not needed as there was no challenge coming in from the riders behind.

Josh Brookes was the rider just missing out, 0.066s slower than Stacey in 13th for DAO Racing.

There was an early fall for Richard Kerr the the Melbourne Hairpin.

Rory Skinner had a technical issue on leaving the pits for the final ten minutes, the Cheshire Mouldings team worked hard on the Yamaha, but the Scottish rider did not get any further track action, dropping to 16th.

Full results for the 2026 Donington Park BSB PQ:

 

Official British Superbike Donington Park Records:

Lap record : Glenn Irwin 1m 26.832s (Ducati, 2025)
New lap record: Kyle Ryde 1m 26.701s (PQ, Ducati, 2026)
Pole lap record : Scott Redding 1m 26.781s (Q2, Ducati, 2025)

2025:

Round 2

Qualifying: 1. Bradley Ray (2. Kyle Ryde, 3 Glenn Irwin)
Race 1: 1. Bradley Ray (2. Kyle Ryde, 3. Josh Brookes)
Race 2 (sprint) 1. Bradley Ray (2. Kyle Ryde 3. Glenn Irwin)
Race 3: 1. Bradely Ray (2.Glenn Irwin, 3. Rory Skinner)

Round 8 (Showdown)

Qualifying: 1 Scott Redding (2. Kyle Ryde, 3 Rory Skinner)
Race1: 1 Scott Redding (2. Kyle Ryde, 3 Rory Skinner)
Race 2: 1 Kyle Ryde (2. Scott Redding, 3 Rory Skinner)
Race 3: 1 Kyle Ryde (2. Bradley Ray, 3. Scott Redding)
Race 4: 1. Kyle Ryde (2. Rory Skinner, 3. Scott Redding)

FP2

The second session saw the official lap record fall to bimota’s Cook, who was fastest at the pre-season test at Donington, topping his first BSB session.

Ryde was right on his heels, just 0.139s slower, with Stacey completing the top three, the only other rider within half a second of the new benchmark.

Redding was a comfortable fourth, putting in a long run, with Haslam leaving it late to finish FP2 inside the top five.

Talbot was again the top rookie in the session in sixth on the second bimota entry, completing more laps than anyone, with 17.

Ray was a cautious ninth after his earlier fall.

FP2 Results:

 

FP1

The first session on track was initially a close affair until Redding put in a series of late laps, the best of which pulled him over half a second clear of the field.

That left Ryde second and Vickers third on similar times, while Danny Kent was also just over half a second behind, as was Ray, who lead before his late fall at Redgate, leaving his Yamaha looking second hand.

Talbot was the best of the newcomers, just behind his bimota team-mate cook in seventh, and just ahead of fellow rookie IlyaMikhalchik in eighth.

Glenn Irwin was ninth, while Haslam was off the pace in 16th.

There were further crashes for both MasterMac riders, EugeneMcManus and Rhys Irwin, with Nesbitt and Iddon also sliding off track.

FP1 Results: