Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) joined an exclusive club of riders to take a MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. He made it three wins out of three after winning both races on Sunday at the legendary Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, taking a maximum 62 points from the Australian Round. He also led every session, although he was denied a pole-win-fastest lap record in Race 2 by his teammate.

Bulega’s had the perfect weekend in Australia, topping every session and winning all three races to achieve a feat that was last completed by Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) at the Autodrom Most in 2024. While topping Free Practice sessions is nice for riders, they will all consider it more important to claim pole position and race wins which ‘Bulegas’ was able to do. He dominated Race 1 on Saturday after taking pole position.

In the Tissot Superpole Race, after going from pole position, the #11 had to withstand pressure from fellow Panigale V4 R runner Andrea Iannone (Team Pata GoEleven) to maintain the lead in the first few laps. However, Bulega was able to stretch out a gap over the full race distance to take victory by 2.324s ahead of ‘The Maniac’, while also taking advantage of non-scores for both Razgatlioglu and teammate Alvaro Bautista to start building a gap to his rivals.

In Race 2, once again went from pole position after his Superpole Race victory. The Ducati star was able to immediately have a bit of a gap to his rivals in the first laps although he still faced pressure from Iannone and the hard-charging Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO Racing). After the pit stops, Bulega came out in front with a bigger gap, and he was then able to control his pace to take his third win of the weekend.

Reflecting on his first WorldSBK hat-trick, Bulega said: “I’m really happy because this is my first hat trick in superbike, its incredible, and amazing feeling to do it at my favourite track and now I want to go back home to celebrate. I’m very proud of the job my team did, my bike was perfect from Monday until the last lap of Sunday in Race 2. I was able to push every lap of this week and I enjoyed every lap, so thank you so much to them.”

Bulega’s hat-trick means he becomes just the fifth rider to secure three wins in a round, following in the footsteps of Bautista and Razgatlioglu, Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) and six-time Champion Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha). It was also the 22^nd time a rider has won every race in a round since the three-race format was introduced, with the Italian hotshot etching his name into the WorldSBK history books.

Looking ahead to next round in Portimao, Portugal, Bulega added: “I’m confident because last year in Portimao I placed second with a bad fever. I think we can be competitive again, it won’t be easy because Toprak Razgatlioglu especially will be very fast along with Alvaro [Bautista] and other riders. I will try to maintain this level, I think that is very difficult, but I will try.”

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