Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) claimed his second win of the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship in emphatic style at the Cremona Circuit, beating teammate Nicolo Bulega by more than five seconds in Race 1. The result means the title has not been decided with Bulega aiming to wrap it up on Sunday at the EICMA Italian Round, while Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) rounded out the podium places after home hero Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) crashed from P3.

DRAMATIC PODIUM BATTLE

Lecuona got a great start when the lights went out to claim the holeshot, but both Bulega and Surra lost out as Montella came through at Turn 1 to demote the #11 and the #67 into third and fourth respectively. However, Montella crashed at Turn 13 on the opening lap, dropping him to the back of the grid. Lecuona quickly bolted away at the head of the field, leading by more than a second at the start of Lap 3. However, ‘Bulegas’ started to match his teammate’s pace over the next few laps as he kept himself in contention for victory while also building a lead over Surra in third. On Lap 5, Lecuona lapped four tenths quicker than Bulega to take the gap out to 1.5 seconds. Surra’s hopes of a maiden rostrum came to an end on Lap 9 when he crashed at Turn 7, which promoted to Sam Lowes onto the podium. Despite having a three-second margin, Lecuona had a huge wobble on Lap 10, showing how hard he was pushing but the #7 retained the lead. The #7 continued to lap faster than his teammate as he claimed his second win of the season, while Bulega finished in P2 for only the second time in 2026. The winning margin of 5.591 seconds is the first time Bulega has been beaten by more than five seconds since Race 2 at Magny-Cours in 2025. Sam Lowes claimed a podium place by holding off Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) for third, taking his 14^th WorldSBK podium.

GERLOFF RETURNS TO THE TOP 5

Baldassarri was forced to settle for fourth despite only falling one second behind the #14 at the start of Lap 21. Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) secured fifth place after a fight with Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team), with the #31 taking his first top five finish since Most Race 2. Alex Lowes followed Gerloff home to finish in sixth place, with less than a second separating the two riders.

BIG BATTLE FOR P7

Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) finished in seventh but he had a train of riders directly behind him, all looking to get ahead. Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) had to resist a hard-charging Jake Dixon (Honda HRC) through the middle phase of the race after the #96 started from P18, before the Brit had to defend from Alvaro Bautista (Barni Spark Racing Team) over the final few laps. It finished with ‘Loka’ in P7, ‘El Bocia’ in P8 followed by Dixon and Bautista, with 0.108s between the rookie and the two-time World Champion.

SCORING POINTS IN RACE 1

Stefano Manzi (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) spent the race riding in tandem with teammate Remy Gardner, with the pair separated by very little throughout most of the 23-lap race. In the end, it was Manzi finished in 11^th with Gardner in 12^th. Somkiat Chantra (Honda HRC) ensured both Hondas scored points with 13^th, ahead of Danilo Petrucci (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Loris Baz (MGM Optical Express Racing) who rounded out the points-paying positions.

Mattia Rato (Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) finished his home race in 16^th place ahead of teammate Twan Smits crashed out on Lap 6 at Turn 8 although the Dutchman was able to rejoin the race falling his fall. He finished in 17^th place.

RACE OF ATTRITION

On Lap 8, Tommy Bridewell (Superbike Advocates) was forced to retire from the race with a technical problem, while Montella retired after a second crash at Turn 10 in the first half of the race. Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was running inside the top ten before he crashed at Turn 10 on Lap 12. On Lap 17, Xavi Vierge (Pata Maxus Yamaha) crashed out at Turn 5, ending the Spaniard’s hopes of scoring points.

The top six from WorldSBK Race 1, full results here:

Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati)
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) +5.591s
Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) +7.247s
Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) +8.763s
Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) +20.250s
Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +20.567s
Fastest Lap: Iker Lecuona (Ducati) – 1’28.077s

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