It was a good day for the ‘Ducatisti’ On Saturday at the TT Assen Circuit, particularly their factory team, which rode roughshod over the competition. Perhaps most encouragingly, Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) again showed signs of growth, not only taking his fourth-consecutive second place, but bringing the fight to his MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship - leading teammate Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).

FRIENDLY FIRE: “When you’re first, it’s difficult to know how much you can push; Then Iker overtook me”

Nicolo Bulega has maintained his prodigious form through Assen’s second day on track. Despite a Turn 1 crash late in the session, Bulega was able to beat out his teammate’s times to retake P1 on two separate occasions. His perfect pole position streak continued at Assen as his 1’32.144s lap broke the standing circuit record and clocked in three tenths of a second faster than Sam Lowes’s (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) time.

Starting Race 1 from pole, for the first time this season, Bulega was beaten to Turn 1 as Iker Lecuona took the holeshot, foreshadowing the fight to come at the front. Lecuona led the first lap until Turn 10 of the second lap, where the 2025 runner-up established himself back in front. From there, so far this season, Bulega has established a pattern of running away with races the longer they go; yet this time around, Lecuona had other ideas. The #7 pushed hard in the early laps to keep the Italian within striking distance, keeping his margin within seven-tenths across the first ten laps. Bulega began to pull farther away around the midpoint of the race, leading by as much as 1.9 seconds by Lap 14. However, as the laps piled up, so too did the rainfall on track, and as water accumulated, Bulega rode with more caution. On Lap 14, Lecuona crossed the line nearly two seconds behind Bulega. By the same point on track on the subsequent lap, the Spaniard once again led the race. He held on for another four laps in total until Lap 18 of 21 but was eventually overcame by Bulega on his way to his 11^th consecutive win.

On the race and his battle with his teammate, Bulega said: “It was more complicated than I thought, but it was a great race. In the later laps, it started to rain, and when you’re first, it’s difficult to know how much you can push. Then, Iker overtook me, and I decided to follow him so as not to take any big risks. As it dried out, I pushed again, and my pace was good as I had saved the front tyre. We have to work a lot because Iker is fast, the same with Sam and other riders.”

INCLEMENT WEATHER:” I recovered a lot of time and overtook him, but my front tyre dropped a lot in the rain”

While Lecuona was overtaken by Bulega for the race win in the final push to the flag, meaning his first WorldSBK win continues to evade him, Lecuona has plenty to hang his hat on from his Race 1 performance. His improvement is nothing short of spectacular to watch after four seasons of much more marginal improvement with Honda HRC. From 2022 to 2025, Lecuona managed two podiums, and in 2026, he’s already managed four. Now, with his Race 1 fight, he’s showing not only that he can regularly feature on the podium, but also that he can even contend with his title-favourite teammate.

On his Friday fight, Lecuona said: “I’m really happy, P2 again, I almost had the same Saturday that I had at Portimao. When the rain arrived, it fell hard at first, and a lot came down in a single lap. I knew Nicolo was going to think about the Championship, and I am in P2, so I thought about it too, but I thought maybe today is my chance to win a race. I like tricky conditions like these a lot, so I said, why not take the risk? I recovered a lot of time and overtook him, but my front tyre lost a lot of pressure in the rain. He overtook me, and I decided to just try to take P2 since Sam was catching up fast. We need to learn and find something for tomorrow, but in these early parts of the race, we were very strong”

Can Lecuona bring the fight to Bulega at Assen’s final day? Tune in to find out with the WorldSBK VideoPass!