Nicolo Bulega dominated the first race of the 2026 WorldSBK season at the Australian round in Phillip Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bulega converted his pole position to lead from lights to flag in the 22-lap race to secure his fourth-straight victory around the Phillip Island circuit in style. The Aruba.it Racing racer on a Ducati was almost five seconds clear of second-placed Yari Montella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ducati locked out the podium position. Montella of the Barni Spark Racing Team, on his own Ducati started from the front row. The Italian rider spent the duration of the race in second position while stretching a margin over another Duacti – Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team Goeleven).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis has been amazing! We\u2019ve been fastest in every session, we started from pole and then we won Race 1. It\u2019s been incredible. This track is unbelievable for me and every time I ride here I enjoy every lap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you have a good feeling with the bike at a track like this, it\u2019s something you can\u2019t really explain. I\u2019m very happy and I want to continue like this. Winning a race is never easy. You have to stay focused for the full race because anything can happen. You need to be precise, almost perfect, to manage the tyre and still ride fast,\u201d said Bulega.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baldassarri, who raced in the Superbike class in 2023, has been in great form all week at Phillip Island, but it was very impressive to see him withstand the pressure from behind to deliver his first podium in the premier class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having started on the third row of the grid, he made progress in the early stages of the race, but during the final third he was forced to absorb sustained pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That pressure came from Axel Bassani of bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team, who was chasing his first podium in over two years. The margin between them at the flag was just 0.036s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting from the fifth row of the grid, Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing \u2013 Ducati) made strong progress through the field. The Spaniard, who switched from Honda during the off-season, finished sixth. Having quickly caught Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team), Lecuona attacked at Turn 8 to overtake his rival and secure the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) started 21st on the grid after a Superpole crash, but the debutant showed his guile and experience to move through the order. A mid-race scrap with his teammate, Danilo Petrucci, saw them trade positions multiple times before Oliveira settled the battle in his favour to finish eighth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xavi Vierge (Pata Maxus Yamaha) suffered a heavy crash on the exit of Stoner Corner with six laps to go, having spent the majority of the race inside the top ten. He had been the leading Yamaha rider after qualifying on the third row of the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having started from pole position in the Superpole, Jaume Masia (Orelac Racing Verdnatura) was jumped at the start by Can Oncu (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing), but the Spaniard retook the lead and led every lap to dominate the opening race of the season. Masia claimed victory by over five seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy with my performance. It was a strange race but I knew I had strong pace and focused on myself. This was the key to winning. Thanks to my team and to everyone at home for supporting me because it\u2019s during the night! We\u2019ll keep working to be even more competitive tomorrow.\u201d said Masia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phillip Oettl (Feel Racing WorldSSP Team) started the season with 20 points for second position, but it was Oli Bayliss who stole the show with a home podium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Australian, riding for the PTR Triumph Factory Racing team, ran wide at Siberia mid-race and almost crashed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He showed maturity to keep a cool head after the incident and came out on top of a three-rider fight for the final step on the podium. It was the first podium of Bayliss\u2019 World Championship career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having started from the front row, Tom Booth-Amos (PTR Triumph Factory Racing) crashed at Turn 2 while trying to chase down Masia in the early stages of the 18-lap race. His fellow front-row starter, Valentin Debise (ZXMOTO Factory Evan Bros Racing), crashed at Turn 4 after running in the podium fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Masia, Oettl and Booth-Amos will start from the front row in Race 2 courtesy of their fastest laps of the race. Bayliss and Debise will start from the second and third rows respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Race 1 SBK Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing \u2013 Ducati) 22 laps Race 1 Superpole Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Jaume Masia (Orelac Racing Verdnatura) 18 laps Nicolo Bulega dominated the first race of the 2026 WorldSBK season at the Australian round in Phillip Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[311,351,352],"class_list":["post-9724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-motorsports","tag-sbk","tag-superpole"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race.jpg",1040,694,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race.jpg",1040,694,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race.jpg",1040,694,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nicolo-Bulega-takes-the-opening-SBK-race.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9726,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9724\/revisions\/9726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
2. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) +4.776s
3. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) +6.147s
4. Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +6.183s
5. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) +8.249s
6. Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing \u2013 Ducati) +12.549s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Philipp Oettl (Feel Racing WorldSSP Team) +5.521s
3. Oli Bayliss (PTR Triumph Factory Racing) +7.266s
4. Albert Arenas (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) +7.721s
5. Can Oncu (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) +7.743s
6. Matteo Ferrari (WRP Racing) +11.856s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"