China's ZXMOTO sweeps the WSBK France front row as Debise takes pole

China's ZXMOTO locked out the front row at the World Superbike Championship's France round, with French rider Valentin Debise taking pole and Italian teammate Federico Caricasulo second in the WorldSSP Superpole session at the Magny-Cours circuit on September 4.

Debise, on the number 53 bike, set a 1:39.585 on his final flying lap to grab pole, with Caricasulo on the number 64 machine right behind him in second, putting the two ZXMOTO riders side by side on the front row for the race.

The result is the latest milestone for a factory team founded by Zhang Xue in 2024 that has already put a Chinese motorcycle brand on the WorldSSP podium multiple times this season, and it comes at the ninth round, the first after the summer break.

ZXMOTO lines up for the first race on September 5, and given the qualifying pace, the team looks set to keep scoring, with a two-year-old Chinese brand trading blows with Europe's established factories standing as the clearest sign of how far Chinese motorcycle manufacturing has come.