Factory Ducati rider Nicolo Bulega capped off a perfect WorldSBK Sunday by securing victory in Race 2 at Aragon.
The Italian battled championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu, but an uncharacteristic mistake from the Turkish rider saw him drop back to settle for second.
From pole, he took the holeshot into Turn 1 as Razgatlioglu and Bautista remained in their starting positions.
However, Iannone and Rea overtook the Spaniard, moving the duo up to third and fourth by Turn 4.
Bulega and Razgatlioglu started Lap 2 with a multiple bike length advantage over Iannone and Rea, before the BMW took the lead at Turn 15 for a brief moment.
Once again, Bulega’s straight-line speed enabled him to regain the lead soon after, but the duo formed a 2.5s advantage so early on.
Bautista recovered from his Lap 1 woes to overtake Iannone and Rea into Turn 1, rejoining the fight for the podium, before Rea reclaimed fourth from the GoEleven rider.
Razgatlioglu ran wide at the final corner in an attempt to carry more speed onto the back straight, but it didn’t pay off, allowing Bulega to extend the gap to 0.4 seconds.
Bulega replied by posting the fastest lap of the race to extend his lead by a slight margin. The Ducati rider relinquished the lead on Lap 7 as Razgatlioglu divebombed his BMW up the inside at Turn 15 once again.
The duo continued to swap places at the usual corners, but with each passing lap, the Turkish rider kept finding ways to find a breakthrough in the final corner.
On Lap 12, Razgatlioglu made an uncharacteristic error at Turn 7, running wide and allowing Bulega to stretch his lead to 1.3 seconds.
Bautista closed to within 1.4 seconds of the BMW rider, but whether the Spaniard could latch onto his rear wheel was another matter.
Bulega extended his advantage to 1.7 and then 2.6 seconds over the next two laps, a clear sign that the Italian was cruising toward victory.
The Italian crossed the line 3.2s clear of the competition and wrapped up Sunday with Superpole and Race 2 victory.
Ragatlioglu settled for second on the BMW with a 36 points lead heading into the penultimate round of the championship.
Bautista claimed third to round off a double Ducati podium, finishing 1.7s behind Razgatlioglu in the end.
Iannone claimed fourth for GoEleven Ducati, finishing ahead of Pata Maxus Yamaha’s Rea.
Alex Lowes clinched sixth for Bimota after his brother Sam crashed out on the penultimate lap of the race.
Andrea Locatelli ensured Yamaha had a successful outing with seventh place, defeating Danilo Petrucci and Axel Bassani.
Xavi Vierge rounded off the top 10 positions after fending off a late charge from Tarran Mackenzie and GRT Yamaha’s Remy Gardner.
Dominique Aegerter posted 13th place, finishing 0.004s ahead of Garrett Gerloff as Ryan Vickers secured the final point.
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