Nicolo Bulega sealed a dominant hat trick of victories over the Australian WorldSBK weekend after a commanding wet-weather display in Race 2.
Bulega led from start to finish despite the difficult conditions and eventually crossed the line to claim his third victory of the weekend by 11.336s.
Before the race started, the rain started to fall which forced all the riders onto the wet tyres at the start.
Polesitter Bulega made the best start and held onto the lead going into Turn 1 ahead of the Bimota of Axel Bassani.
Alex Lowes had a difficult start to the race on the second Bimota, and dropped a position to the satellite Ducati of Yari Montella before coming under pressure from brother Sam Lowes.
Further down the field the pack bunched together across the opening lap, but Mattia Rato highsided out of the Miller hairpin which brought an early end to his first weekend as a WorldSBK rider.
At the end of the lap, Sam Lowes closed the gap on his brother ahead and used the slipstream down the Gardner straight to move into fourth position.
The British rider looked to have the pace in the wet conditions, and made a second pass on Bassani to get himself into the podium positions before attempting to chase down Montella in front.
However, after a comfortable four laps running in third place, Lowes crashed out at Turn 3 to end his bid for a first podium in 2026.
Tarran Mackenzie and Alvaro Bautista were promoted into fifth and sixth respectively, with both riders rapidly catching Alex Lowes ahead.
Bautista used his experience to find his way past Mackenzie, before eventually passing Lowes to provide the Spaniard ambitions of a first podium at the Barni Spark team.
Mackenzie also managed to pass Lowes down the main straight to return to the top five, with the MGM rider still hoping to catch back up to Bautista in front.
As the race looked to be settled out front, Montella lost the rear at Turn 9 and crashed out of second place to end what had been a promising weekend for the Italian.
Montella’s Barni Spark team-mate Bautista inherited the last spot on the podium, while Mackenzie and Lowes commenced battle once again for fourth.
In the fight, Lowes looked to push a bit too hard down the main straight and crashed out at the first corner in a sorry finish to his race.
Bulega crossed the line to complete a dominant hat trick of wins in the opening round of the season.
Bassani earned his second podium of the weekend by producing a strong performance in second place, while Bautista completed the rostrum in third.
Mackenzie recorded a career-best finish in fourth, while Andrea Locatelli had a quiet race but charged through to fifth.
The BMW pairing crossed the line in sixth and seventh respectively, with Danilo Petrucci leading Miguel Oliveira over the line.
Iker Lecuona lost out to Oliveira on the final lap and had to settle for eighth, while Lorenzo Baldassarri recovered from a double long lap penalty for a jump start to take ninth.
Garett Gerloff faded throughout the race but still managed a top 10 finish ahead of Honda’s Tetsuta Nagashima.
Rookie Alberto Surra earned 12th place over the line, while home favourite Remy Gardner finished 13th.
WorldSSP Champion Stefano Manzi completed his debut weekend in 14th, as Bahattin Sofuoglu completed the finishers by taking the last point in 15th.
Ryan Vickers retired from the race with a technical issue, while Xavi Vierge crashed out as the pair joined both Lowes brothers, Rato and Montella as the non-finishers of Race 2.
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