Nicolò Bulega came to Cremona with hopes of winning his first World Superbike title. Mission accomplished. He left as 2026 champion, despite his teammate Iker Lecuona taking every race win of the weekend.
Second place in Sunday's final race was enough for the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider to secure the crown with two rounds and six races remaining. Lecuona may have completed a hat-trick on Ducati's home soil, but Bulega's three 2nd place finishes delivered the title that had eluded him for the past two seasons.
The result was the culmination of a truly remarkable run and outstanding dominance. Bulega pushed Toprak Razgatlioglu all the way to the final race in 2025, winning 14 times but finishing just 13 points short. With Toprak moving to MotoGP, Bulega began 2026 as the favourite and he soon showed us exactly why. He won the first 21 races of the season which extending a winning streak that had begun at the end of last year: a WorldSBK record of 25 consecutive wins! Seriously impressive stuff when you consider that's almost twice the previous record of 13, set by Toprak.
Cremona was the first round of 2026 at which Bulega didn't actually win a race, yet even a clean sweep by his closest rival and team mate could not delay the inevitable. His 26 victories so far this season have put him within reach of Álvaro Bautista's record of 27, with Estoril and Jerez still to come. Given his dominance this year I think there's a good chance he can beat that record. What a finish to his time in WorldSBK's that'll be.
For Bulega, the 2026 title is both a reward for three remarkable seasons and a springboard to MotoGP with VR46 next year. Having witnessed and photographed his dominance in WorldSBK this year, I'll be fascinated to see what he can achieve in 2027.
