Recent off securing the WorldSBK title at Cremona, Nicolo Bulega reasserted his dominance with a commanding efficiency in Race 1 at Estoril, placing an finish to team-mate Iker Lecuona’s latest profitable run.
Nicolo Bulega set the tone early in Superpole by smashing Toprak Razgatlioglu’s 2025 monitor document by half a second. Though a slight error into Flip 1 on the opening lap dropped him to 3rd behind Lecuona, who realised the holeshot and Alex Lowes, the 2026 WorldSBK champion rapidly reset.
Nicolo Bulega equals Alvaro Bautista’s 2023 document
By Lap 2, Bulega had cleared Lowes’ Bimota, earlier than pulling off a medical late-braking go on Lecuona at Flip 1 a lap later. From Lap 3 onwards, Bulega managed the tempo from the entrance to lock in his twenty seventh win of the season. This new victory sees him match Alvaro Bautista’s 2023 document for the best variety of race victories in a single WorldSBK season.
Alberto Surra resists house favourite Miguel Oliveira
The battle for the ultimate spot on the rostrum noticed Alberto Surra ship one of many performances of the day. Following up on his standout journey at Cremona, the Motocorsa rider soaked up immense strain from native hero and five-time MotoGP winner Miguel Oliveira.
Whereas the manufacturing unit Ducati duo proved unreachable, Surra maintained a cool head, holding a stable two-second margin over Oliveira to say a hard-earned third place. It marks his second podium in three races and his first in a full-length function race. In the meantime, Oliveira scores his greatest outcome since his breakthrough weekend at Portimão, forward of Alex Lowes in fifth.
Lorenzo Baldassarri produced a standout journey to sixth place, surviving a Lap 6 collision with Yari Montella that was reviewed by Race Course with out additional penalty. Behind them, Axel Bassani pipped Montella to seventh by simply 0.033s on the line, whereas Alvaro Bautista and Garrett Gerloff accomplished the highest 10.
