Bulega shatters more records at Misano

Ducati continued their unprecedented WorldSBK domination, while Remy Gardner took a hard fought top 8 finish and Carter Thompson starred in WorldSPB

Nero fiddled while Rome burned, they say, but Misano sizzled while the Ducatis proved to be hyper-dominant again in the Bologna factory’s near-back yard.

The Misano weekend is always, and in many ways even more than ever this season, truly, madly, desmodromically, Italian. Overdressed and underdressed people, parties for the many Italian team’s sponsors, and parties just because it’s the weekend and we’re in Misano. The whole round crackles with sun-fuelled life.

But once again the championship leader smashed everyone else’s hopes. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati) romped his way to a new track best in Superpole Qualifying on Saturday, then set a new lap record in the first race of the weekend – 30°C air and 52°C Saturday track temperatures or not.

Misano was a sweltering beach party mixed with a bare-knuckle prize-fight on track, but from first to the end of the first raceday, nobody else got a glove on Bulega.

Actually, Alex Lowes joined Bulega and his rapid but still winless teammate Iker Lecuona (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati) on the Race One and Superpole Race front rows, with a late lap that put another even more local manufacturer’s machine – the KB998 bim is not called the ‘Rimini’ model for nothing – in amongst the many and various Ducati birds of prey.

Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) was fourth in Superpole, just ahead of fellow local Ducati-riding warriors Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven Ducati) and Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing Ducati).

In the first race, Surra would not feature heavily, Baldassari would fall trying to get a podium, but behind the top two factory Ducatis of Bulega (of course) and a highly frustrated Iker Lecuona, Montella made his local team delirious in the heat as he scored a podium.

Seventh in qualifying, Axel Bassani (bimota by KRT) sliced through to finish fourth, with even his normally more potent teammate Alex Lowes having to yield to a sliding front tyre and Bassani’s simply better race pace.

Behind all these Italian bikes was… another Italian bike – and rider, Ducati and Surra.

Even the top Yamaha rider, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) in seventh place, is Italian… and his bike is largely developed and tuned in Italy.

Did I say that Misano is just a bit Italian?

Danilo Petrucci (ROKiT BMW Motorrad) did not make it off the injury list in time to race at home, but his teammate and multiple podium man in his rookie season Miguel Oliveira came back to race, although he was really not quite ready. He still finished eighth, despite the pain and lack of fitness. Quietly amazing, even if he was also quietly exhausted. He would finish a remarkable sixth in Superpole, but he had to pull out of the long Sunday race as it was all too much for his body and he did not want to risk anything for his fellow riders.

We can only ponder what the season would have been like so far with a fit Oliveira getting better and more experienced every week.

Further up in Superpole, the familiar Bulega beat was too fast for even Lecuona again, as the Spaniard finished second (just 1.133sec back), with Montella again third.

A great ride for Bassani, again over-performing against the many Ducatis, saw him fourth, although 4.5sec behind Montella. Baldassarri was fifth. A rare tech breakdown saw Alex Lowes suddenly slow and then stop out on track, losing his chance of a good top-five placing.

The second long race, held in even hotter conditions than the first on Saturday, would end up showing us all a mirror image of the other podiums – Bulega-Lecuona-Montella – but this time around that was only because Bassani fell, on lap 18, after being third for most of the race.

Even hardened Ducatisti would have cheered a bit had Bassani got on the podium, given he is an Italian rider on an Italian bike. But, a huge sigh of relief that a non-Ducati had got on the podium (for what would have been the first time since Oliveira in race One at Balaton) would surely have swept over the suntanned fans at Misano.

Alex Lowes was able to take fourth place after he came back strong from his race one tech issue, and a near career-best for Taz Mackenzie saw him fifth. His best dry race since he got to WSBK, he even beat local hotshot Surra, who left his home round with 6-7-6 results.

Misano is still a true ‘event’, if not on the scale of the early 2000s when the Superbike races – often dominated by Ducatis, of course – drew so many people that you could hardly see the grass on the hillside over the Quercia corner. The crowd was good at Misano this year, some 76,170 over the whole weekend.

Misano in June is hot, too hot at times, but the really inflammatory races were to be found in the WSSP and WSPB classes yet again.

In the WSBK championship standings Mr Perfection Nicolo Bulega has 434 points, Lecuona 313, Montella 170 and Alex Lowes (not twice race-faller Sam) is fourth with 156.

WorldSSP – Arenas Stretches His Lead

The first race was a real last-lap Misano special, with the lead changing in the final corners and Valentin Debise (ZXMOTO Factory Evan Bros Racing) winning the battle of tactics and timing from Albert Arenas (AS Racing Yamaha), if only by 0.107secs. They had broken clear of the rest, leaving Can Öncü (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) in third, despite starting from pole.

The needle on the variety meter was stuck on FSD again in the Next Generation WSSP scene, with Tom Booth-Amos (PTR Triumph Factory Racing) fourth – after a strangely struggling Jaume Masia (Orelac Racing Verdnatura) ran into him and fell just before crossing the line. Alessandro Zaccone (Ecosantagata Althea Racing Team) and his Ducati made it four manufacturers inside the top five in Race One.

Race Two was a ninth place near-disaster for Debise and a tenth-place real even bigger disaster for Öncü and his championship hopes. Arenas dominated this race, in relative terms, and won by just under two seconds from Booth-Amos and the other AS BLU CRU Yamaha rider, Aldi Satya Mahendra, in third. Masia was fourth. In the championship points, Arenas has 251, Debise 195, Masia 179 and Öncü 159.

WorldSPB – First For Triumph

Triumph took its first win in this new category when local rider Bruno Ieraci (CM Triumph Factory Racing) secured the victory after a nine-rider fight for the podium places. Some were penalised for yellow flag infringements, or exceeding track limits on the final lap, but the podium remained as was, with Ieraci leading the Aprilia of Filippo Bianchi (Team MMP Velocita) and Aussie rider Carter Thompson (Team BrCorse Yamaha). Carter put in an even cleverer race to go second in Race Two, behind championship leader David Salvador (ProDina Kawasaki) and ahead of Fenton Seabright (PHR Performance Triumph). In the points, Salvador has 164, Torres 130 and Artigas 129. Kawasaki has won six races in all, hence the all-Ninja top three.

WorldWCR – Double For Herrera

Maria Herrera (Terra and Vita GRT), of course, won the first race at Misano, by the simple expedient of having a better final lap plan than her near race-long companion, Beatriz Neila (Ampito Crescent Yamaha). Chloe Jones (Monster Energy Crescent Yamaha) was third, after Muklada SaraPuech (EEST NJT Racing) was penalised for overtaking under a yellow. Race Two saw Herrera win again, from Neila, with first-time podium finisher Sarapuech eventually getting that elusive top-three finish. Tayla Relph (Full Throttle Racing) was eighth, then knocked off in Race Two. In the points, Herrera leads Neila by 181 points to 157.

AUSSIES

Remy Gardner
Remy qualified 13th in Superpole, but was to crash late on in Race One. In the Superpole Race he was 13th and in Race Two he was eighth. He is now 17th in the championship points. “Qualifying wasn’t too bad, but once again the field was incredibly tight and we missed out on a few positions by just a small margin. In Race One we tried to push hard, but the conditions were quite demanding. The pace was reasonable during the early stages, but as the race progressed I started to struggle with grip. I crashed with three laps remaining. Unfortunately, the Superpole Race didn’t go well on the first lap and I had to recover, but in the long race the feeling was much better and I was able to push.”

Oli Bayliss
Oli was eighth in qualifying, and after an eventful Race One was seventh. On Sunday he was 16th and sits 14th overall in the championship after seven rounds. “Not a bad race on Saturday. A difficult first few laps but in the middle we made up the gap to the group fighting for P3. I made a small mistake trying to pass another rider, which cost me quite a lot of time. Not our best day on Sunday; after a positive warm-up I thought we could have a good race, though as in the past we have struggled a lot in the hot conditions and I felt a bit like a sitting duck in the race. Now a bit of time off for the team while I go to the BSB rounds in between.”

Taiyo Aksu
Suddenly on a Honda for this round, after starting the season with a Yamaha, Taiyo was disqualified from Superpole for a minimum weight infringement. Starting from 32nd place, he then had a crash in Race One, but restarted to finish 24th. In Race Two he was 18th, again from the back of the grid. “The team have changed bikes this weekend to a Honda, so this was my first weekend running on a CBR600RR. It was a pretty steep learning curve, as my first time on the bike was on Friday, in a 25-minute practice session. I managed to adapt quickly and in Qualifying I was P14, and just 1.3 seconds off. But then I got a penalty.”

Carter Thompson
Carter was a fine fourth in Superpole Qualifying, then took a third place finish. In Race Two he was second. He now sits sixth overall, on 93 points. The 2026-spec R7 came online for this race, and it was a clear improvement via small chassis detail refinements. “I felt very good in the race, I was comfortable fighting at the front. I expected the race to be a bit faster, but it was a bit difficult with the grip in the heat. Together the team and Yamaha have made big steps, this weekend we have the 2026 bike which has helped us a lot, I have a much better feeling with the bike and can do a lot more of what we want with it. It was a difficult race to manage with the hot temperatures, I tried to push from the start to see if I could set the pace but in the end this meant I took a bit too much life out of my tyres as I didn’t have the grip I wanted at the end. But it was a good battle, and a great race to cross the line second.”

Tayla Relph

Tayla qualified 13th but ended up ninth in Race One. Race Two saw her get taken out early on, restart, but have to retire. Relph sits 12th in the championship, with 39 points. “I was disappointed to not fight for a good result on Sunday after a promising step on Saturday. I was taken out into T8 on the opening lap by someone who just lost control on the entry of the corner. They have since been served a long lap penalty for the next race in Donington, which doesn’t really change my race result or the fact that this season, I have had two DNFs and both of them have been due to being taken out by another rider on the first lap. Which means twice now I have had the opportunity taken away from me to show my potential and once again I lost vital championship points due to the mistake of another rider.”

NEWS

Painting the town green, white and red

This being the Misano round, there were a rash of special crash helmet paint jobs for the many Italian riders to show off. Lorenzo Baldassarri’s one had lots of logs painted on a more solid base colour. This alludes to how many laps Baldassari does in testing, with his team saying to him that he was made of tough old wood.

bimota rider Axel Bassani celebrated a near-podium experience in the new era of Ducati domination with some song lyrics from the tune ‘Dillo Alla Luna’, by his favourite singer, Vasco Rossi, all over the top of his largely red/rose coloured lid.

The most complicated and maybe significant paint job was that on the helmet of triple race winner Nicolo Bulega. The front of the crash helmet had a checked table cloth pattern – like you might find in a typical Italian trattoria – with references to Tagliatelle and Pizza on it. Right around the base and chin bar of the helmet he had cartoon likenesses of all his main team members, from team owner Stefano Cecconi downwards. This was thought to be a sort of hometown farewell to WSBK by some, to his Aruba.it team and his current crew. Maybe it’s too easy to read anything into this idea, but it did feel like a kind of early goodbye and thank you to his team before he heads off to MotoGP in 2027.