Lecuona ends Bulega’s historic winning streak

Iker Lecuona claimed his first WorldSBK victory at Donington Park to halt Nicolo Bulega’s perfect 2026 run, while Remy Gardner fought from the back of the grid to score a gritty points finish in Race 1

Iker Lecuona brought Nicolo Bulega’s remarkable winning streak to an end in Race 1 at Donington Park, delivering a breakthrough WorldSBK victory after a tense and tactical battle at the front.

The prospect of Bulega winning every race of the 2026 season had remained alive after his Superpole success, but Lecuona made sure that run stopped on Saturday. In a race shaped by an intense duel between the Aruba.It Racing Ducati teammates, Lecuona stayed in the fight throughout before producing a smart and decisive final lap to seal his maiden WorldSBK win.

Behind the leading pair, Yari Montella completed the podium, though he finished 6.7 seconds adrift of the battle for victory. Sam Lowes crossed the line in fourth, while Tommy Bridewell equalled his career best WorldSBK result with fifth, giving the home fans something to cheer.

Lorenzo Baldassarri took sixth after getting the better of factory bimota rider Alex Lowes, who finished seventh. Garrett Gerloff was eighth for Kawasaki, ahead of Axel Bassani in ninth, while Xavi Vierge rounded out the top 10 as the leading Yamaha rider.

Miguel Oliveira marked his return from injury with 11th place, just ahead of Australia’s Remy Gardner, who produced one of the standout recovery rides of the race.

Gardner’s Saturday had been thrown off course in Superpole when he crashed during a promising flying lap, ending his qualifying early and condemning him to start from the back of the grid. The GYTR GRT Yamaha rider responded in determined fashion, making an excellent launch and gaining ground immediately.

From there, Gardner settled into a strong and consistent rhythm across the 23 lap contest, steadily picking off riders and closing the gap to the pack ahead. By the chequered flag he had climbed nine places to finish 12th, turning a frustrating qualifying result into a valuable points-scoring performance.

On the other side of the GYTR GRT Yamaha garage, Stefano Manzi looked set to challenge for the points in the closing stages, but a difficult final stint cost him several positions and he ultimately finished 16th, just outside the scoring places.

The WorldSBK field returns to Donington Park on Sunday for the Superpole Race and Race 2, with Gardner hoping to build on his strong comeback and Yamaha looking to turn promising pace into a bigger result

Iker Lecuona 
“I’m very happy and I want to thank my team for putting me in a position to be so competitive. It was a great race, with many battles with Nicolò. I want to enjoy this moment thinking of my family and dedicate this victory to my daughter Luna.”

Nicolò Bulega 
“Congratulations to Iker on his first WorldSBK victory. I tried from the first lap to the last, but I was missing something. However, this doesn’t change anything, because our goal is always to improve, session after session, race after race, and that is what we will have to do tomorrow.”

Remy Gardner
“Overall, it was a positive race and we showed strong pace throughout the 23 laps. It’s a shame about qualifying because we had the potential for a much better result, and I was on a good lap before the crash, so I’m disappointed about that. Still, I pushed as hard as I could from the start of Race 1 and in the end it paid off. I’m happy we managed to recover some valuable points with a strong comeback. I’d like to thank the whole team for all their hard work after qualifying. It’s a decent reward, but tomorrow we’ll aim for even more, even if starting from the back of the grid again won’t make things easy.”

WORLDSSP RACE 1

WorldSSP rider Tom Booth-Amos (Triumph Factory Racing) went from third place – on what was a hometown grid for man and machine – to a clear win after 19-laps of a warm Donington Park circuit.

Booth-Amos was not in a strong position to start, but found his pace and push as the race went on, leading this year’s most potent rider so far, Albert Arenas (AS Racing Yamaha) by 2.4 seconds over the finish line.

Third spot went to fourth place qualifier, and now three-time WorldSSP podium finisher, Jeremy Alcoba (Kawasaki WorldSSP Team).

Fourth was Roberto Garcia (GMT94-YAMAHA) on a lonely final lap, with early race leader Can Öncü (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) fifth, Philipp Öttl GER (Feel Racing WorldSSP Team Ducati) sixth and Oli Bayliss (Triumph Factory Racing) seventh. Having started from 10th on the grid, Bayliss was matching the pace of the leaders towards the end of the race and a top 5 result looked possible before he ran out of laps.

Valentin Debise (ZXMOTO Factory Evan Bros Racing) placed eighth, Aldi Satya Mahendra (AS Racing Yamaha) ninth and Filippo Farioli (VFT Racing Team Yamaha) tenth, winning a five rider fight on the final lap.