For the first time in the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) was not on the top step of the rostrum. His record streak came to a halt at Donington Park as teammate Iker Lecuona beat him in a head-to-head duel in Race 1 of the Prosecco DOC UK Round, with the #7 claiming his first win and ending Bulega’s record streak at 25 races.
The signs were present on Saturday morning that perhaps Bulega would be challenged, with Lecuona setting a 1’24.462s early on in Tissot Superpole, but the #11 was able to respond with a 1’24.410s as he made it nine pole positions in a row stretching back to Jerez 2025; a new all-time record streak.
As the lights went out for the 23-lap race, Lecuona got a great launch and jumped ahead of his teammate into Turn 1. Lecuona led every lap of the race but that did not tell the full story, with ‘Bulegas’ trying hard on every lap to get ahead of his teammate. The first attempt came at the Old Hairpin on Lap 3, but Lecuona was able to retain P1. Bulega spent a few laps trailing Lecuona only to launch a move at Turn 11 on Lap 5, but, again, Lecuona was able to resist this challenge.
As the race reached the latter stages, Bulega had through the Craner Curves and into the Old Hairpin on Lap 16, but Lecuona stayed ahead. It was the last three laps where the battle really ignited, when Lecuona ran slightly wide at the Melbourne Hairpin on Lap 20, allowing Bulega to close the gap. Despite the Italian’s best efforts at the Foggy Esses on Lap 21 and the Melbourne Loop on both Laps 22 and 23, it was Lecuona who came out in top after an enthralling race.
On his first defeat of the 2026 season, Bulega said: “It’s okay, second isn’t such a bad result! Congratulations to Iker, he deserved this victory. He and his team simply did better than us, so they deserved this victory. Second is a good result. I tried but today I was at 90% and Iker was at 100%, so I just missed this 10% that I hope to find tomorrow. Iker did a very good job and covered the line. I tried to have a good line outside to be ready for the last corner, but I braked too hard and went a bit wide. Iker did better.”
Bulega had won the first 21 races of the 2026 campaign, and it looked like it would take a moment of misfortune for his winning run to come to an end. However, the streak ended in a way that would’ve pleased everyone – with an epic on-track battle decided across the final few corners. The 41-time WorldSBK race winner explained what he was missing on Saturday to take the fight to Lecuona on Sunday; where he wants to find that extra 10%.
He said: “I didn’t miss a lot. In the first part, I liked, as I could ride more or less how I want. In the last sector, where there are two hairpins, I miss a lot of acceleration on the exit. Iker, in first and second gear, gained maybe two tenths, so then I had to recover under braking, but I was always too far back to make a clean overtake.”
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