Portuguese star Miguel Oliveira found some much-needed momentum right on home soil during the penultimate round of the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season. Racing for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, the five-time MotoGP race winner put together a pair of fourth-place finishes at Estoril, a welcome turnaround after a brutal rookie campaign marred by injuries from a crash at Balaton Park that forced him to miss several rounds following his podium triple at Portimao.
The weekend started on a positive note when Circuit Estoril dedicated Turn 7 to him on Thursday. Oliveira backed up the honor by claiming fifth in the Tissot Superpole session, giving him his best grid start since March at Portimao. Saturday's opening race saw him slip to sixth on the first lap behind Yari Montella, but he quickly fought back. He took ninth on lap two and then wrestled fourth away from Alex Lowes on the run into Turn 1 on lap three. That put him behind Independent Ducati rider Alberto Surra. The gap hovered around a second for the first ten laps before stretching to 1.7 seconds on lap 11, where it stayed until the chequered flag, keeping Oliveira just off the podium.
Sunday morning brought the Tissot Superpole Race, and Oliveira wasted no time. Starting fifth, he dove up the inside into the first corner to grab third place instantly. Aside from the opening lap, he kept his lap times consistently at or below a 1'35.3s, a blistering pace matched only by front-runners Nicolo Bulega and Iker Lecuona. Surra shadowed him closely throughout the 10-lap sprint, shrinking the gap to half a second on lap eight and just a tenth on lap nine. Pushing right on the limit for his home fans, Oliveira unfortunately overcooked his entry into Turn 3 on the final lap, letting Surra slip through to take another fourth-place result.
Reflecting on that sprint race, Oliveira said: "It was a little bit frustrating; I almost had it. The Tissot Superpole Race just went away when I made the mistake on the last lap, but it was a solid weekend overall. I braked late into Turn 3, it allowed Alberto to claim the inside. It's the only regret I had this weekend. It was one of our best weekends since Portimao with the podium we had there. Solid results, solid Superpole session; we performed quite well."
Sunday afternoon's final race proved far more chaotic. Starting from fourth, Oliveira dropped back to sixth by the end of the opening sector and tumbled all the way down to 13th by the end of the first lap after running wide at Turn 6 and Turn 9. He clawed his way back into the top eleven by lap three by passing Andrea Locatelli and Jake Dixon, then pulled off a stunning double overtake into Turn 1 on lap six to take ninth from Garrett Gerloff and another rider. Further passes on Lorenzo Baldassarri and Xavi Vierge moved him up to seventh, though subsequent trips wide at Turn 2, Turn 9, and Turn 1 undid much of his hard work.
He eventually refound his rhythm in the latter half of the race, passing Vierge again on lap 11 and benefiting from late crashes by Alex Lowes at Turn 4 on lap 16 and Alvaro Bautista at Turn 1 on lap 17 to finish eighth. Summing up the final outing, Oliveira said: "In Race 2, unfortunately the starting position hurt our chances of taking the inside line into the first corner. Once you're behind, it's quite tricky; battling as if it was the first lap with 13 laps to go makes you lose a lot of time, even if you're a faster. We understood a bit more about what we need from the bike. We confirmed a few things we had already learned. Race 2 was a bit scary. When I overtook two riders at the same time, I didn't know if they had braked too soon or if I braked too late. It was hard to stop the bike on Sunday afternoon. I lost the hard work I had put in up until I ran wide. I had good overtakes, it meant we were fast and had good pace; but in the end we couldn't show it. We go with a positive mindset to Jerez and we're looking forward to finishing this season with another positive weekend."
