Nicolo Bulega kept his hopes of taking the WorldSBK title alive by taking Race 2 victory in Estoril over rival Toprak Razgatlioglu.
The Italian closed the gap to Razgatlioglu in the championship to 39 points heading into the final round of the season after dominating to his 11th victory of the campaign.
Bulega made the best start once again and moved straight into the lead from second on the grid.
Razgatlioglu, on the other hand, had a disappointing getaway and was down to fifth by the first corner, behind both factory Ducatis as well as Andrea Locatelli and Andrea Iannone.
The GoEleven rider made a block pass on Alvaro Bautista into third, which also opened the door for Razgatlioglu to make progress.
The Turkish rider made his move down the start-finish straight, going past Bautista and into fourth position.
Corners later, Razgatlioglu made his way past Iannone before the Italian was awarded a double long lap penalty for a jump start.
The championship leader continued to progress as he pulled a slightly aggressive move on Locatelli for second place, which he made stick and attempted to chase down Bulega’s lead.
Razgatlioglu’s move also allowed Bautista the opportunity to regain the final spot on the podium from the Yamaha rider.
A yellow flag was thrown out at Turn 7 due to Michael Ruben Rinaldi suffering a crash, which momentarily halted the four-rider battle for the podium.
Iannone ran wide at Turn 1 to demote himself to ninth, then elected to take the first of his two long laps, which removed him from podium contention.
Locatelli struggled to regain his momentum after Razgatlioglu’s overtake and soon found himself behind the Bimota of Alex Lowes.
Following the British rider’s move into fourth, he managed to get onto the rear tyre of Bautista in the battle for the final spot on the rostrum.
At the front, Bulega continued to build his advantage over his title rival, moving over two seconds ahead by mid-race distance.
Razgatlioglu managed to close the gap in the middle part of the race track, but had no answer to the superior speed of the Ducati down the main straight.
Iker Lecuona crashed out of the lower points positions at Turn 7, which marked the end of a disappointing weekend for the Spaniard.
With five laps remaining, Tarran Mackenzie also exited the race after losing the front in Turn 1.
Out front, Bulega crossed the line to complete a dominant performance, taking victory by 4.868s to keep the title rolling to the final round in Jerez.
Due to Bulega’s victory, Aruba.it Racing Ducati were also crowned as the Team’s Champions for 2025.
Razgatlioglu was unable to provide an answer to Bulega’s pace and was forced to settle for second.
Bautista completed the podium in third, securing a hat trick of podium finishes from the Estoril weekend.
Lowes’ pace faded in the latter stages as he came home in fourth place, while Locatelli recovered from a difficult early period for fifth.
Xavi Vierge concluded a strong penultimate weekend for Honda in sixth, ahead of Remy Gardner in seventh.
Axel Bassani took the chequered flag in eighth over Jonathan Rea in ninth, as Michael van der Mark completed the top 10.
Garrett Gerloff was 11th over the line, finishing two seconds clear of the penalised Iannone in 12th, while Ryan Vickers was 13th.
Bahattin Sofuoglu ended the race half a second behind Vickers in 14th, while Yari Montella recovered from running wide early in the race to take the final points position in 15th.
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