Nicolo Bulega completed a dominant flag-to-flag victory in the Portimao WorldSBK Superpole Race.
In the same fashion as Saturday’s Race 1, the Italian was joined on the podium with team-mate Iker Lecuona and BMW challenger Miguel Oliveira.
Bulega formed an excellent getaway to take the holeshot into Turn 1, but instead of team-mate Lecuona following him, it was BMW rider Oliveira.
The top three consisted of Bulega, Oliveira and Bimota’s Alex Lowes, making it three different manufacturers occupying the top three podium slots.
Lecuona recovered from lost ground at the start to take third off Lowes into Turn 1 on Lap 3, while Bulega stretched a 0.7s advantage over the rest of the field.
He managed to stretch to 1.7s by the halfway mark, and by that point, Oliveira kept Lecuona at bay. The Spaniard eventually swooped past down the straight on Lap 6, prompting Bulega to extend his lead further to 2.5s.
Bahattin Sofuoglu and Somkiat Chantra both retired after crashing out at Turn 13 and Turn 5, respectively.
Lecuona clawed back some margin to reduce the deficit to Bulega from 2.5s to 1.8s by the end of the race.
Bulega stormed to victory to seal his fifth race win of 2026, but his ninth consecutive Grand Prix victory.
Lecuona recovered to take second place once again in Portugal after falling to fourth on the very first lap.
Oliveira secured a double podium delight to round off the top three, securing his second podium finish of the year.
Alex and Sam Lowes once again finished fourth and fifth, respectively, followed by Barni Spark Racing rider Yari Montella.
Xavi Vierge and Yamaha produced seventh place, defeating Bimota’s Axel Bassani, Barni Spark’s Alvaro Bautista and GoEleven’s Lorenzo Baldassarri.
Andrea Locatelli fended off a late charge from BMW’s Danilo Petrucci and MGM rider Tarran Mackenzie, followed by Garret Gerloff, Alberto Surra and Remy Gardner.
On his birthday, Stefano Manzi finished down in 17th place, ahead of Honda’s Jonathan Rea, British rider Tommy Bridewell, and Mattia Rato, who closing out proceedings.
Discussion about this post