Danilo Petrucci maintained his Saturday form to dominate Cremona’s inaugural WorldSBK Superpole Race.
The Italian led from start to finish, with Alex Lowes and Andrea Iannone accompanying the home favourite on the Superpole rostrum.
Cremona’s Superpole Race was only ten laps long, the shortest on the calendar since the shorter race format was introduced into the series.
Lap 1 saw Bulega struggle off the line, but the former MotoGP rider duo of Petrucci and Iannone pounced into Turn 1, before the current championship runners-up lost out to Lowes and Andrea Locatelli too.
Spanish Honda rider duo of Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona aboard the Honda bike formulated strong battles in the opening two laps with Axel Bassani, with Alvaro Bautista looking to rise up the grid once more.
Tarran Mckenzie and Marvin Fritz crashed out inside the opening two laps, with the latter not being able to get the bike going again.
Ducati’s advantage in straight-line speed allowed Bulega to pass both Locatelli and Lowes on Laps 3 and 4, putting himself back into rostrum contention.
By that point, Petrucci and Iannone had strung together a gap between themselves and the rest of the field, with Petrucci 1.2s clear of his fellow countryman.
Bradley Ray’s race got off to the best possible start to try and secure himself a seat for 2025, as he gained three positions in the opening laps to place himself sixth.
Double WorldSBK champion Bautista elevated himself to ninth place before an overtake on Lap 8 on Tito Rabat placed him eighth.
Bulega had previously caught up to the back of Iannone, but it was noticeable that the bike was affecting Bulega. He was unable to pass his fellow Italian but Lowes had better grip with his tyres in the final two laps to overtake both Bulega and Iannone to elevate himself to second.
Bautista overtook Vierge and Locatelli in the closing two laps to elevate himself to the sixth spot to seal the all-important second-row start for Race 2 later in the day.
Petrucci extended his lead to over two seconds out front and dominated proceedings to earn his second race win of the 2024 season to bolster his late-season charge.
Lowes pulled off a masterclass to snatch second away due to conserving his Kawasaki tyres to perfection, with Iannone rounding off the podium spots.
Bulega will see his Sprint race finish of fourth as a missed opportunity to catch up closer to the absent Toprak Razgatlıoğlu in the standings, as Honda’s Lecuona and Bautista finished close behind him in fifth and sixth spots.
Locatelli performed the best he could aboard the Yamaha with seventh spot secured, with Vierge finishing eighth and lead BMW rider Garrett Gerloff finishing in ninth.
Tito Rabat finished in tenth ahead of Axel Bassani and BMW Motorrad’s Michael van der Mark, who struggled to get to grips with the brand-new Italian circuit.
Scott Redding finished 13th ahead of Sam Lowes and Ray, with the latter dropping off and completing the final laps after a strong start to proceedings.
