#nicolobulega

4th May 20256th May 2025

WorldSBK: Bulega completes hat-trick at home in Cremona

Nicolo Bulega picked up where he left off the previous day to more-or-less ease to victory in the remaining 2 races at the Cremona Circuit in Italy, with an ardent home crowd and MotoGP figures from Ducati in attendance to witness his historic achievement.

TISSOT SUPERPOLE

The 10-lap Tissot Superople around the shortest circuit on the World Superbikes calendar was a rapid affair. The Sunday morning race took just under 15 minutes and was in many ways a repeat of Race 1 from the previous day.

Bulega led from pole position ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista while Sam Lowes once again fell back from the front row of the grid. Razgatlioglu tried his best to stick with Bulega but by as early as lap 3 it was evident that the latter was managing to pull away at the front.

While Bulega stretched out his lead, Razgatlioglu kept him in sight but was unable to close in while Bautista once again settled in 3rd. Andrea Iannone was hit with a double long-lap penalty for narrowly jumping the start and found himself in 9^th after serving his punishment, having been in contention for 4^th before it.

Sam Lowes held onto 4^th ahead of an Xavi Vierge, with the two faster riders of Iker Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci running out of time to make up more positions. Crucially for Petrucci he was able to secure 6^th place in the race and the same spot on the grid for Race 2 to make up for his shambolic qualifying in the Superpole on Saturday.

As for Lecuona, he crashed out on lap 9 to make it 2 retirements in 2 races so far in Cremona despite having some scintillating pace. After the Honda rider crashed out, Andrea Locatelli, Iannone and Michael van der Mark were those who rounded out the top 9 and inherited those same places for Race 2.

Given how short the race was, the independent Ducati riders Scott Redding and Gabriele Ruiu gambled on running the qualifying tyre but were unable to make much progress. Redding fell short of the crucial 9^th place require to get a better grid position for Race 2, coming home in 11^th while Ruiu was 21^st.

TISSOT SUPERPOLE RESULTS

RACE 2

It became known that Lowes was suffering from illness this weekend and this was perhaps why he once again went backwards at the start of the 3rd race of the weekend. Despite Bautista starting on the front row, he was unable to challenge Bulega and Razgatlioglu who once again held 1^st and 2^nd places at the start.

Just as in Race 1, Razgatlioglu scythed up the inside of Bulega with a block pass at the final corner of the 1^st lap. Bulega then stalked his rival for another 3 laps before an unsuccessful move at the end of the back straight on lap 4, which he converted successfully at the same spot a lap later to retake the lead.

Unsurprisingly, that was the last Razgatlioglu or anyone else saw of Bulega. In front of a 45,000 strong home crowd and senior figures from Ducati’s MotoGP management, the 25-year-old delivered while the pressure was on to secure an emotional hat-trick that will live long in the memory for him – and his stunned competitors.

Razgatlioglu nonetheless did well to bank three 2^nd place finishes this weekend as he noted Bulega’s superior speed on corner exits, but even Bautista on the other factory Ducati was unable to get close to his teammate. At least Razgatlioglu was much closer to Bulega in Race 2 than he was in Race 1, with one mistake by Bulega probably enough to put himself under pressure from the BMW rider, however the Italian was peerless around Cremona.

After Bulega retook the lead the main action was taking place further down the order. Petrucci was able to take move from up from 6^th into 4^th after dispatching Lowes and Vierge. Of course it was still a disappointing weekend for the man who won all 3 races at Cremona last year, and the gap to Bautista in 3^rd suggests that 4^th may have been the maximum that the Italian could have hoped for anyway.

The battle for 5^th was a thrilling and borderline disastrous affair between the factory Honda duo and Lowes. Lecuona was again coming through from the midfield and after a tough battle with Locatelli he had around 6 laps to catch and pass his teammate and Lowes up ahead.

By the time Lecuona became a factor in the battle for 5^th, time was running out. Some very aggressive racing between the two teammates saw them almost collide at the final corner, then Vierge made contact with Lowes coming onto the start-finish straight.

A thrilling final lap saw Lowes valiantly retake P5 with just 3 corners to go while Vierge had to settle for 7^th behind his teammate – a damning result giving their grid positions. Locatelli was 8^th on a difficult weekend for Yamaha, with Michael van der Mark and Remy Gardner rounding out the top 10.

A hat-trick of wins for Bulega and 3 straight 2^nd places for Razgatlioglu sees the Italian rider stretch his lead in the World Championship to 34 points heading to Autodrom Most for Round 5 in a fortnight’s time. By then, it would not be a great surprise if Ducati has their fuel-flow slightly restricted to try and peg back Bulega in particular, but the concessions system in WorldSBK might not be enough to stop the 25-year-old from running away with this year’s title if the Acerbis Italian Round was anything to go by.

RACE 2 RESULTS

Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK

13th April 2025

WorldSBK: Locatelli takes maiden win amid double Bulega retirement

Andrea Locatelli inherited a first WorldSBK victory in Assen after the frighteningly fast Nicolo Bulega suffered mechanical problems in both the Tissot Superpole and Race 2 to leave the championship leader pointless on Sunday at the Pirelli Dutch Round.

TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE

Rain was falling as expected on Sunday morning at the TT Circuit Assen, with the warmup and Tissot Superpole being a wet affair for the WorldSBK riders. With the qualifying session on Saturday also setting the grid for the Superpole race, Sam Lowes had a second shot at converting his maiden pole position while Razgatiloglu and Axel Bassani were not affected by any grid penalties unlike in Race 1 yesterday.

As the sun started to break through the clouds by the 11am race start time, Bulega once again shot from second into the race lead ahead of Lowes as he had done in the first race on the previous day. Lowes fell to ninth by running wide at turn 1 in the tricky conditions, which left Razgatlioglu to chase Bulega for the race lead.

Andrea Iannone did well at the start to jump into third, a place that he eventually lost to his fellow Andrea – Locatelli – who had taken an impressive second place the day before. Things only got worse for Iannone, who ran wide then later crashed his satellite Go Eleven Ducati bike.

Razgatlioglu made a move on Bulega for the lead at turn 5 on the 2^nd lap. The gap between the top two in the race and the championship ballooned to almost one second by the end of the lap as the BMW rider best adapted to the tricky conditions.

Lowes began to recover from his off at the start and made it back to the podium by the end of the 10-lap affair. The marcVDS Ducati rider had to try twice on the same lap to get past Alvaro Bautista’s factory bike, and then easily inherited second when Bulega ran wide at turn 1.

As it transpired, Bulega had an issue with his Ducati Panigale V4R that dropped him out of contention. The results from the top nine in the Tissot Superpole Race determine the starting grid for Race 2, from which the championship leader would have to start from 10^th place.

With Razgatlioglu, Lowes and Bautista coming home on the podium, home hero Michael van der Mark tried valiantly to take P4 from Locatelli but came up short. Scott Redding had a respectable ride to 6^th after passing Remy Gardner in the closing stages.

Yari Montella and Tarran McKenzie also did well in the wet to start race 2 from row 3. With Bulega mired on row 4 and Razgatlioglu taking a chunk of points from his rival with his 12 points for the win, it set up a fascinating final race in the afternoon.

TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS

RACE 2

With Bulega stuck in 10^th place for the start of the 21-lap Sunday afternoon race, his rivals ahead knew that there was a real chance to capitalise on the championship leader coming from so far back. Razgatlioglu and his BMW team opted to use hard tyres to give himself more grip for the end of the race when the inevitable pace of Bulega would come to haunt him, or at least that was the thinking…

The hard tyres simply never worked for Razgatlioglu as Bulega predictably deployed his superior pace to methodically work his way towards the front of the grid. Once again Sam Lowes had a difficult start from the front row, while Bautista passed Razgatlioglu for the initial lead.

The race developed into a train of the top 7 bikes by about ¼ distance, with Bulega at the back of the pack having risen calmly from 10^th. Locatelli had swooped past Razgatlioglu on the 2^nd lap, while Remy Gardner had a thrilling start to run as high as 2^nd himself.

As Locatelli and Gardner fought tooth and nail for P2, Razgatlioglu continued to fall down the order. After Locatelli had finally dealt with Gardner to cement 2^nd on lap 7, the Yamaha rider had enough pace to reel in Bautista for the race lead.

Once Locatelli had passed Bautista, Bulega was ready to seize on his teammate and then overtook Locatelli for the lead at the halfway point. That was the last anyone saw of Bulega until it all went wrong for the second time in one day.

While Bulega stretched his lead the race settled down with Locatelli, Bautista, Gardner, Lowes, Bassani and Razgatlioglu the order. Then Bulega tragically retired once again with just 2 laps to go after such a stunning ride in Assen that went unrewarded.

Locatelli was left to inherit his first victory in the Superbike World Championship after a record 154 winless attempts. Meanwhile, a frustrated Razgatlioglu lost a further two spots at the end to Alex Lowes and Iker Lecuona to fall to eighth in a race where he could have taken up to 25 points out of the championship leader.

RACE 2 RESULTS

Feature Image Credit: Ducati

1st April 20252nd April 2025

WorldSBK: Razgatlioglu responds to Bulega challenge with treble in Portimao

Toprak Razgatlioglu added victories in the Tissot Superpole and Race 2 in Portimao to become the 2^nd rider this season to secure a treble of victories in one round. However, much like in Race 1 Nicolo Bulega ran him incredibly close after the Turkish rider didn’t do himself any favours with his race starts.

TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE

As with Race 1 on Saturday, Bulega got the hole shot into turn 1, powering ahead of Razgatlioglu who this time slipped to 3^rd. Danilo Petrucci spent exactly one lap ahead of Razgatlioglu, passing him at the first corner on lap 1 and losing the position at the same spot on lap 2.

On lap 5, Bulega lost the lead to Razgatlioglu at turn 3 in a move that the Turkish rider had visibly been setting up for some time. Just after the lead changed hands, just outside the top three Bulega’s teammate Alvaro Bautista passed Andrea Locatelli for fourth.

As the 10-lap race entered its second half Bulega tried his best to keep pace with Razgatlioglu as Bautista hunted down Petrucci for 3^rd. The factory Ducati rider passed the satellite one with 2 laps to go, after which there was no time for the two-time World Champion to catch the leaders.

At least Bautista was able to demonstrate the pace that he could not show on Saturday after contact with Scott Redding in Race 1. Another rider on the back foot from the previous day – Alex Lowes – did a great job to scythe through from the back of the field but could not make it into the top 10 within 10 laps, thus leaving him unable to change his grid position for Race 2.

Meanwhile, behind Locatelli in fifth the other BMW of Michael van der Mark was able to despatch the Honda pair of Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge towards the end. Despite this, the Japanese manufacturer was enjoying a decent turn of pace, with its recent switch of suspension supplier possibly helping with their upturn in form.

Up front, the only time Bulega looked genuinely threatening against Razgatlioglu in the second half of the race was right at the very end. Coming through turn 14 and the long turn 15 onto the start-finish straight Bulega rapidly closed on Razgatlioglu but had to change from the outside to the inside as they approached the chequered flag.

The positioning of his BMW on the final blast to the line have secured Razgatlioglu his first Tissot Superpole Race victory of the year by just 0.055 seconds. Much like Race 1, it was clear that Bulega was capable of taking the fight to Razgatlioglu on the circuit that is notorious for being a favourite of the Turk, and hopes were high for another close tussle in Race 2.

TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS

RACE 2

This time around, Razgatlioglu only lost one position from pole by turn 1. Bulega led from his BMW rival and Aruba.it Racing teammate Bautista.

Locatelli held off Razgatlioglu’s teammate van der Mark for fourth while an entertaining battle for positions six through nine kicked off between Andrea Iannone, Remy Gardner and the Honda duo. However, this action was thwarted after Iannone received a double long-lap penalty for jumping the start, with the Italian taking the first of these on lap 5.

Shortly after Vierge crashed out, as did Tito Rabat further down the order. Up front, Bulega continued to lead from Razgatlioglu and they began to put as much as 0.7 seconds a lap between themselves and Bautista who simply had to settle for third best.

The laptimes of the top two as the race edged towards halfway were as quick as the pole position laps from last year, which illustrates both how dominant the two were around the Algarve International Circuit and how much the speed of their respective superbikes increases year-on-year. Inevitably, as the race reached halfway Razgatlioglu began to close in on his Bulega as he sought to take the treble in Portimao but with 11 laps to go his charge was halted.

Jason O’Halloran (in for the injured Jonathan Rea) went down at turn 1 and was seemingly OK after the impact. However, his Pata Maxus Yamaha careered into the air fence on the outside of the run-off area and the race was halted with a red flag.

This created opportunities for a couple of riders, most notably Scott Redding and Alex Lowes. Just before the red flag Redding had trundled into the pits with a technical problem but just made it back onto the grid before the restart after the issue with his MGM Bonovo Ducati was solved, while Lowes finally started a race from a better position this weekend having made his way to 13^th by the time of the stoppage.

The WorldSBK stewards announced a quick-restart procedure after the air-fence was inspected and repaired after not too long of a delay, but there was pandemonium at the Team Pata Go Eleven pits.

Iannone had not served his second long-lap penalty, which can be taken with six laps of the punishment being awarded. His team tried to argue for their rider’s sake and Iannone avoided disqualification the regulations demanded he serve a double ride-through penalty for failing to observe the double long-lap.

Four penalties for jumping the start put paid to Iannone’s race and his gesticulations as he came through the pits shortly after his passing his main independent rival Petrucci clearly demonstrated his frustration with the decision. After barely accelerating after coming out of the pits, the Italian rider eventually came back in and retired in a slightly selfish move considering that he could have collected some data for his engineers in clear air over the remaining few laps, but his anger got the better of him.

The remaining laps of the restarted race essentially represented a full points-paying event but constrained to the length of a Superpole race. Razgatlioglu – for the fourth time this weekend – lost out to Bulega on the run to turn 1 and also slipped behind a fast-starting Locatelli who powered through from fourth on the grid.

Naturally Razgatlioglu made short work of Locatelli who – like Petrucci at the first start – stayed ahead of the BMW for precisely one lap. By the following lap, Razgatlioglu made a sensational move on Bulega into turn 1, forcing his rival to sit up as he went through the apex of the corner as the BMW bulldozed him off his line.

At the same time, Locatelli fell back to fourth after Bautista passed him and quickly resettled into his own comfortable gap between the top two and the Yamaha behind. There was a brief moment in the following lap where Bulega returned the favour on Razgatlioglu and allowed Bautista to close up, but the two-time WorldSBK title winner had no real answer for his teammate or the reigning champion’s race pace.

Razgatlioglu was back through on lap 15 of 20, after which the lead changed four times over the next three laps. Further down the order, Tarran MacKenzie and Remy Gardner both crashed out while Axel Bassani engaged in a thrilling battle with Danilo Petrucci for 6^th place – the latter securing the position right on the finish line on the final lap.

The fight between the top two remained on a knife-edge until the very end although Razgatlioglu just held on to take his first triple victory of the season after Bulega did so at the 1^st round in Phillip Island. The Ducati rider still holds a comfortable championship lea thanks to three wins and three second places from six races across the first two rounds of 2025 as WorldSBK next heads to Assen in the Netherlands in two weeks’ time.

Razgatlioglu may have felt like World Superbikes had become the ‘Ducati Cup’ after the drubbing he suffered in Australia, but his performance in Portugal reignited his and everyone else’s hope that this will be a tight contest between the BMW rider and the two Aruba Ducati’s this season. However, Bulega might feel that he lost the battle but is winning the war, given how close he could run his rival on a track that has always been a particularly strong venue for Razgatlioglu.

RACE 2 RESULTS

Feature Image Credit: BMW