PRAGUE, May 17 (Xinhua) -- French rider Valentin Debise of Chinese motorcycle manufacturer ZXMOTO completed a Czech Round double in the WorldSSP class of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship on Sunday, taking his second victory in as many days and his fifth win of the season.
With the result, Debise moved up to second in the riders' standings on 147 points, overtaking Spanish rider Jaume Masia. ZXMOTO remained third in the manufacturers' standings on 149 points.
Unlike Saturday's first race, in which Debise led for long spells, Sunday's Race 2 developed into a tense battle with Turkish Yamaha rider Can Oncu. The pair exchanged the lead repeatedly before Debise launched a decisive move in the latter part of the final lap to cross the line first. Oncu finished second, with Triumph rider Bayliss taking third.
With 13 laps remaining, Oncu and Debise began a prolonged fight for the lead, swapping positions nearly 10 times. Before the final lap, Oncu dived down the inside into Turn 1 to regain first place. Debise continued to search for an opening and struck back around Turn 13, before defending his advantage to the finish.
Several riders crashed during the race. Albert Arenas and Masia, who had been the top two in the riders' standings before the race, both retired after crashes. With six laps remaining, Debise briefly faced pressure from two Yamaha bikes and two Triumph bikes behind him, but one Yamaha and one Triumph later went off.
"For the championship, it's good. I don't know about the points, but the only thing I can manage is to try to do the best result every time," Debise said after the race.
"And Oncu was very strong today, gave me a very hard time. When I passed him in some places, I could see him changing his riding style to make sure I couldn't pass him there again. So I had to keep inventing different ways to overtake him. On the last lap, I decided to attack in a place I had never tried before. I could see he did not expect me there. After that, I defended and kept the position until the finish," he added.
Debise also paid tribute to his team. "Thanks to my team. They improved the bike again, and I felt very comfortable. The pace was very fast today. Thanks to ZXMOTO, thanks to the team. Now we keep working for the next race."
Oncu said Yamaha still had work to do. "ZXMOTO were a little bit faster today, and we still have to work a bit more. We are very strong, and we are back. Today we finished second, but very soon we will win," he said.
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