A dominant efficiency from Iker Lecuona noticed the Spaniard deny teammate Nicolo Bulega a championship-clinching victory in Race 1
at Cremona in Spherical 10 of WorldSBK, main residence an Aruba.it 1-2 as Sam Lowes inherited the ultimate step of the rostrum.
Lecuona blew the competitors away over 23 laps on the Italian Spherical, leaving Bulega over 5 seconds behind on the line. Whereas the outcome seals an emphatic victory for Lecuona, it crucially retains the 2026 WorldSBK title battle alive, delaying Bulega’s mathematical coronation till Sunday’s motion.
Championship wait continued as Lecuona fees away
Bulega entered Saturday’s opening encounter with an opportunity to wrap up the WorldSBK crown on residence soil, however his hopes of securing the title early have been placed on maintain from the opening meters. Launching brilliantly from the entrance row, Lecuona remained in management into Flip 1, whereas Yari Montella lunged up the within, forcing each Bulega and native star Alberto Surra broad into third and fourth. Montella’s high-risk manoeuvre backfired moments later when he slid out at Flip 13 on the opening tour.
With a transparent observe forward, Lecuona relentlessly set the tempo, extending his benefit to over a second by Lap 3. Bulega tried to match his teammate’s rhythm to maintain his championship celebration plans intact, however Lecuona laid down the gauntlet on Lap 5 with a race-fastest 1:28.077 lap time, stretching his result in 1.5 seconds.
Behind the Ducati pair, Surra’s fairy-tale bid for a house podium ended abruptly on Lap 9 with a crash at Flip 7, selling Sam Lowes into third place.
Even an enormous second on Lap 10 couldn’t derail Lecuona. Pushing his Panigale V4 R to absolutely the limits, the Spaniard gathered the machine again up with out shedding momentum and continued to tug clear, crossing the end line 5.591 seconds forward of Bulega to report his second victory of the 2026 marketing campaign. The margin marked Bulega’s heaviest defeat in a dry race since Magny-Cours 2025, guaranteeing the title celebration should wait at the very least till Sunday’s Superpole Race.
Lowes held off late stress from Lorenzo Baldassarri to safe third and earn his 14th profession WorldSBK podium.
Behind Baldassarri in fourth, Garrett Gerloff produced a robust journey to safe fifth place, holding off Alex Lowes to assert his greatest outcome since Most.
Andrea Locatelli spearheaded a close-following practice to take seventh forward of Axel Bassani. In the meantime, Jake Dixon mounted an impressive drive from 18th on the grid to complete ninth, keeping off double World Champion Alvaro Bautista by a mere 0.108 seconds.
Yamaha duo Stefano Manzi and Remy Gardner spent the total 23-lap distance nose-to-tail to complete eleventh and twelfth respectively. Somkiat Chantra completed thirteenth for Honda, whereas Danilo Petrucci and Loris Baz (MGM Optical Categorical Racing) gathered the ultimate factors in 14th and fifteenth.
The opener proved pricey for a number of huge names: Thomas Bridewell suffered a technical failure on Lap 8, Montella retired after falling a second time at Flip 10, Miguel Oliveira crashed out of top-10 competition at Flip 10 on Lap 12, and Xavi Vierge crashed at Flip 5 on Lap 17.