WorldSBK: A weekend attendance of 53,942 fans saw Nicolo Bulega continue on his march towards a first Superbike World Championship.
Unbeaten since the start of the season, Bulega has also extended his streak of consecutive wins to 19. With five hat-tricks to start the season, he has now broken the record for the most consecutive podium finishes in WorldSBK.
Race 2 Highlights
Bulega converted the pole position into an early lead with Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) giving chase throughout. The gap between the Ducati teammates was less than a second throughout the 22 lap duration with Lecuona ready to pounce on any mistake from his team leader. Ultimately, Bulega was mistake-free while running a consistent pace in the 1’30’s. The gap at the chequered flag was five tenths of a second.
Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) spent the entire race in third position as he wrapped up the fifth podium of his campaign. He was under pressure throughout from Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team Goeleven) who moved into fourth position on Lap 10 ahead of Alberto Surra.
It was an action-packed race for Surra (Motocorsa Racing) as he fought with Garrett Gerloff throughout. Their fight was only settled in the closing laps with the Kawasaki WorldSBK Team rider finally making his move and opening a margin of a couple of tenths of a second at the close of the race. The bimota duo of Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani finished seventh and eighth.
It was a strong day for the Superbike Advocates team with Tommy Bridewell finishing a season’s best eighth in the Tissot Superpole race and tenth in Race 2.
Championship Highlights
Having continued his perfect start to the season Bulega holds a 95 point advantage from Lecuona as the Aruba.it – Ducati team made it a dozen consecutive one-two finishes.
Montella’s hat-trick of podiums netted him a career best 39 points from a single round. The Italian now holds third in the standings and is 14 points ahead of Lorenzo Baldassarri.
P1 – Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“I’m very happy, especially because maybe Balaton and Most are not among my best tracks. To take another hat-trick here is something really important for me. It’s my fifth hat-trick of the season and 19 race wins in a row, so I’m very happy and I hope to continue like this. We are working very hard and it is paying off. Iker was very strong during the race. We changed something on the bike and it worked very well in the first laps with fresh tyres, but from mid-race onwards I started to struggle a bit more compared to yesterday. So we need to study and analyse that for the future and maybe find a compromise between yesterday’s setup and today’s. But in the end, the important thing is another 25 points.”
P2 – Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“I’m very happy with this weekend, even if I expected a little bit more. The most important thing, and something that also makes the team happy, is that we are able to fight with Nicolo. Yesterday we battled in the race, this morning we were both at record pace, and this afternoon we were even faster again. We are making a very big gap compared to the rest of the field, even the other Ducati riders. The bike worked very well this afternoon and the team did a fantastic job. We took a small risk and changed the setup for the race, but it worked really well and we stayed very close. In the end it was only a matter of seconds but the important thing is that we are there fighting.”
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P3 – Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team)
“The Superpole Race was a bit strange but in the end we managed to do a good race and secure another front row start for Race 2. Then in Race 2 I really enjoyed the first part because I was able to push hard for the opening ten laps. After that the rear tyre dropped and I struggled a little bit more. Overall, I’m super happy because we achieved our goal to fight for the podium. Bringing home three third places this weekend makes me really proud, especially with my first podium in the Superpole Race as well.”
Race 2 Results
1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
2. Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.594s
3. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) +15.529s
4. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) +16.783s
5. Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) +22.947s
6. Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) +23.177s
Championship Standings
1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 310 points
2. Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 215
3. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) 121
Superpole Race Highlights
Having started from pole position Bulega made a mistake at the first corner and lost momentum. This opened the door for Lecuona to hit the front. The Spaniard led for just one lap before Bulega took the lead into the first corner by outbraking his teammate. Bulega set a fast pace but by half distance he started to open his lead which would stretch to over one second at the chequered flag.
Montella made it a third consecutive podium as the Barni rider converted his front row start into a third place finish. One of his main rivals, Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) was a crasher on the opening lap.
1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
2. Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +1.959s
3. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) +6.980s
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