Nicolo Bulega continues his unbeaten run as he secured his 23rd consecutive WorldSBK victory with a dominant display at Misano.
At Ducati’s home circuit, Bulega came away victorious in the opening race of the weekend at the Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK Round.
The Italian rider was dominant in front of his home crowd and Ducati bosses as he won Race 1 by 6.117 seconds.
Joining the Italian on the podium were two fellow Ducati riders, with Iker Lecuona in second and Yari Montella in third.
As the lights went out, it was Bulega who grabbed the holeshot as he led the way from pole position into the opening chicane at Misano.
However, on the exit of the chicane, Lecuona grabbed the lead from his teammate, as the Spaniard got the inside line into Turn 3.
By the end of the opening lap, Bulega had regained the lead and began to extend his advantage over his factory Ducati teammate.
At the end of Lap 2, Ducati dominated the top five as Bulega led from Lecuona, with Montella in third, Lorenzo Baldassarri in fourth, and Alex Lowes in fifth.
On Lap 3, Ryan Vickers was the first faller, as the Honda rider stepped in for the weekend to replace Jake Dixon, who is still recovering from injuries. However, the British rider later rejoined the race.
At Turn 5 on Lap 5, Baldassarri crashed out of the top five, and promoted Axel Bassani from sixth place into the top five.
A lap later at the same turn, Sam Lowes found himself out of the race as he lost the front of his Marc VDS Ducati.
On Lap 7, the Bimota riders Alex Lowes and Bassani engaged in battle, and the Italian rider took fourth place away from his teammate.
By Lap 11, Bulega had extended his lead over Lecuona to 3.772s as the Italian continued to run away with the race at Misano.
There were no battles at the front of the field by Lap 14, but further down in the order, a battle was emerging between Alvaro Bautista and Remy Gardner as they were fighting for tenth.
On Lap 19, Garrett Gerloff was able to get into the point-scoring positions as the Kawasaki rider overtook Michael van der Mark, who ran into a mechanical issue with his BMW.
Later on during Lap 19, Gardner found himself down and out of 11th place as he crashed out of the race.
After 21 laps of racing, Bulega crossed the line in first place after dominating proceedings from the front after overtaking his teammate on the opening lap.
Behind the Italian was Lecuona in second place, as the Spaniard did not have the pace to challenge Bulega, but was in a comfortable podium position.
It was a lonely race for Montella as he crossed the line in third place for the Barni Spark Racing Team.
The Bimota riders, Bassani and Alex Lowes, completed the top five as they finished in fourth and fifth places.
Alberto Surra crossed the line in sixth place on the Motocorsa Ducati, with Andrea Locatelli in seventh place as the top Yamaha, and Miguel Oliveira returned from injury in eighth.
Bautista was in ninth place on the Barni Ducati, with Stefano Manzi completing the top ten on the GYTR GRT Yamaha.
Mackenzie missed out on the top ten but finished in 11th, with Xavi Vierge in 12th place, and Tommy Bridewell scoring points in 13th.
The final point scoring riders were Gerlff in 14th, and Somkiat Chantra in 15th. With Bahattin Sofuoglu crossing the line in 16th, and Mattia Rato in 17th.
Discussion about this post