FIM Superbike, Round 2 | Pirelli Portuguese Round: Dominant weekend for Ducati and Bulega

A weekend attendance of 82,132 packed into Portimao for the Portuguese Round. They were rewarded with a great weekend for their home hero Miguel Oliveira. The ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team rider finished third in all three races this weekend. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was the man to beat after a perfect weekend for the Ducati man.

Race 2 Highlights

• Starting from pole position Bulega led every lap this weekend and came away with a victory margin of just under two seconds as he claimed his tenth win in a row. He’s the fourth rider in WorldSBK history to reach this milestone after Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista.
• A slow start for Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) dropped him to fourth position on Lap 1 but he made swift progress to ease his way into second position by Lap 4 ahead of Oliveira and Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team). The battle for third went all the way to the line with Oliveira holding sway having been under pressure throughout the 20 laps.
• Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) ended the weekend in fifth position ahead of Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team Goeleven) who progressed from the fourth row of the grid to finish inside the top six. Baldassarri spent the race inside the top ten as he continued his impressive start to the campaign.
• The race promised a lot for the Barni Spark Racing Team duo of Yari Montella and Alvaro Bautista but both crashed at Turn 5. The same corner claimed Xavi Vierge (Pata Maxus Yamaha) on Lap 4 while his teammate, Andrea Locatelli, ended the weekend with a ninth place finish.

Championship Highlights

• With six wins out of six Bulega extended his championship lead to 56 points from his teammate Lecuona. Axel Bassani finished eighth in both races today and drops to third in the standings.
• Sam Lowes is now the leading Independent Rider courtesy of his trio of five place finishes.
• Having claimed maximum points this season Ducati has a 50 point lead over bimota in the Manufacturers standings.

P1 – Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“This has been a very good weekend and it’s a special Sunday for me. I won the Superpole Race this morning and then Race 2. We improved the bike a lot compared to yesterday and my feeling was much better today, so I’m really happy about that. We didn’t start the weekend in the best way and I had a very bad feeling with the bike so it was hard to push the way I wanted. But we worked hard with the team and never gave up. Every day we found a solution and by Sunday the bike was very, very good. I want to thanks my team for helping me improve and to be faster. I’m very proud to be part of this project. They have worked incredibly hard and they truly deserve this result.”

P2 – Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“Finishing P2 is the real target for me right now. Today we were even closer compared to Nicolo and had a very similar pace but once again my start wasn’t the best. I need to work on that. In any case, I’m very happy and I’m especially happy for the team because it’s the first time in their history that they’ve achieved P1 and P2 in all three races of a weekend. The team worked so hard and the bike was incredible today. I’m very impressed with my performance and my feeling.”

P3 – Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team)
“This was a very positive weekend to finish on the podium three times. I said this morning that I knew it would be really tough this afternoon to fight the two fastest riders. I also had a strong battle with Alex who kept the pressure on me for many laps. I was struggling at times but I pushed as hard as possible to secure third place. It’s definitely a step forward for us. I had fun on track and I’m looking forward to the next round.”

Race 2 Results

1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati)
2. Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) +1.967s
3. Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +7.096s
4. Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +7.265s
5. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) +10.079s
6. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) +15.105s