2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship runner up Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) dominated once again in the Tissot Superpole Race. The Italian rider in his sophomore season has been on fire out of the gates, once again finishing P1. Andrea Iannone (Team Pata Go Eleven) recovered from his disappointing P6 result in race 1, giving Bulega a run for his money before he pulled away. A chaotic Turn 4 fracas saw Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad Racing Team) and Alvaro Baustista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) run off track, hurting their race placement. Razgatlioglu’s P13 finish spelled the end of his streak of P1 or P2 finishes, stretching all the way back to his return from injury in Aragon in 2024’s Round 10.

BULEGA STAYS HOT: All-Italian finish in Australia’s Superpole Race

Nicolo Bulega had much more competition than in his blowout Race 1 win, however still claimed P1 by a 2.3s margin ahead of Andrea Iannone. Bulega looks ahead to the final race of the round where he now has the chance to claim his first ever WorldSBK hat-trick. Iannone was tenacious in his leap into the first corner, jumping up from P6 into P2. He nipped at Bulega’s heels in the first laps of the race, posing the greatest threat of the session. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) rounded out the podium, and while a gap separated him from Bulega and Iannone in the top two sports, he did well to hold on to P3 from a spirited attack from Scott Redding (MGM Bonovo). Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista saw their Superpole sessions squandered as they both ran wide through the gravel and onto the grass in Lap 1’s Turn 4, ruining both their placements.

TWO ENGLISH RIDERS IN TOP 5: Sam Lowes claims P5

Scott Redding once again found himself in the midst of the action and clashing with the other Independent Ducati’s, this time battling with Danilo Petrucci for P3. As Petrucci pulled away later in the race, the hunter became the hunted as Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) challenged his fellow Englishman for his P4 position. Sam Lowes rose to the occasion and landed his best-ever race result in World Superbike, his prior best being a P6 in last year’s Race 2 in Assen. Andrea Locatelli did what he does at Phillip Island and secured another strong result, this time a P6 to score four points in the Championship.

BOTH BIMOTAS IN POINTS: Yari Montella scores his first-ever WorldSBK Points

The returning Bimota project saw their riders once again finish within close proximity, Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani both finished within the points in P7 and P9 respectively. Between them, Rookie Yari Montella showed his caliber as a rider and claimed his first-ever points in WorldSBK, a feather in the cap of the young Italian as he will look forward to building on this momentum.

GERLOFF’S RACE ENDED: Crash ends his day early

Garrett Gerloff fell victim to a hectic Lap 1 Turn 4, a congested corner entry for the grid saw  Tetsuda Nagashima wipe out and slide into Gerloff atop his bike, mechanically inhibiting his bike and the Texan rider from continuing. In the same encounter, Honda HRC rider Tetsuta Nagashima crashed as well. He finished the lap, came to the pits early and called it a day in his second lap.

The top nine from the WorldSBK Superpole Race, full results here!

1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati)
2. Andrea Iannone (Team Pata Go Eleven) +2.324s
3. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) +4.923s
4. Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO Racing) +5.312s
5. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) +5.452s
6. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) +6.891s
7. Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +7.267s
8. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) +9.748s
9. Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +10.585s

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