Sunday at the Cremona Circuit may see a new MOTUL FIM Superbike World Champion crowned as Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) can win it as early as the Tissot Superpole Race if he tops the order and his teammate Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) finishes P6 or lower. Should that not happen, Bulega only needs to score a total of 15 points across Sunday’s final two races in the EICMA Italian Round.
Saturday saw the #7 flip the script and beat his teammate by nearly six seconds, but ever wary of the Italian’s pace, he pledged to fight at the front again for the win. Getting the ball rolling on Sunday, it looks like it will be a fight indeed between the two ‘Ducatisti’ as Lecuona managed to outpace Bulega with a 1’27.790s but only by a hair over a tenth faster than ‘Bulegas’.
Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) was the best of the rest in P3, four tenths back from Lecuona, but just around three and a half tenths quicker than his Bimota-powered brother Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team), who finished in fourth. Taking P5 with a late 1’28.583s lap, Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) was just a hundredth faster than Jake Dixon's (Honda HRC) Honda machine.
Opening Sunday hot, look for Jake Dixon (Honda HRC) to continue to go “full gas” in the Superpole Race after taking a very strong P6 atop the Honda CBR 1000RR-R SP in the Warm Up. Undeterred after a tech issue ended his Race 1 after seven laps, Tommy Bridewell (Superbikes Advocates) started Cremona’s final day in P7. After one of his season’s best results of P5 in Cremona’s opening race, Gerloff finished Sunday’s opening session in P7. Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) emerged late in the session, pulling out of pit lane with only six minutes remaining and taking P9 over his abridged session. In the final spot in the top ten, Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) still looks to be building his confidence after his pair of crashes on Saturday. He will need to find his footing soon in order to hold off the improving #14 for third in the Championship.
The top six from the WorldSBK Warm Up session: Full results here!
- Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) 1’37.790s
- Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) +0.115s
- Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) +0.419s
- Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +0.779s
- Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) +0.793s
- Jake Dixon (Honda HRC) +0.803s
The Title may be decided here at Cremona! Tune in to the pair of races starting with the Tissot Superpole Race at 11:10 (Local Time UTC +2) with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 70% off!