Lecuona has broken through; now Bulega is in his sights: WorldSBK needs this duel

Three podiums, his first as a Ducati rider—Lecuona can be pleased with his SBK weekend in Portugal: will he be able to give Bulega a hard time?

Nicolò Bulega proved dominant again at Portimão, but the Aruba.it Racing Ducati team can also be satisfied with Iker Lecuona’s performance. After qualifying second in Superpole, just 142 thousandths behind his teammate, the Spaniard secured three second places in the races at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. They were his first podiums with the Panigale V4 R, and he wasn’t far off the winner (2.5s, 1.8s, and 1.9s), even if perhaps Bulegas was managing things a bit, not needing to push. In any case, the Superbike round in Portugal could have been a starting point for the former Honda HRC rider, who now feels more at ease with the new bike and better prepared to fight for the positions that matter.

Lecuona can only be happy with how his weekend at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve went, though he needs to work on his starts, having lost positions off the line in every race: “Taking three P2s was the realistic goal. On Sunday I was closer to Bulega — he said — we had a similar pace, but my start wasn’t the best. I’m happy for the team as well because for the first time in history a team took P1–P2 in Superpole and in every race of the weekend. The bike was incredible; I managed to improve my confidence and my performance. We’ve done a great job, starting already from Australia.”

In the Superbike overall standings, the Spaniard has climbed to second place, but he is 56 points behind Bulega, who so far has a perfect score: “I’m two races behind Nicolò Bulega — he commented — so he would need two DNFs, or at least one. But anything can happen in racing. Now it’s clear we have the performance to be in the top 2–3. Nicolò has taken a further step; I can learn from him: I improved a lot by comparing our data over the weekend. He’s 6 out of 6, congratulations to him. We’ll see how it goes at Assen. I like that track, but I want to keep my feet on the ground. Even if we were P2 at Portimão, it doesn’t mean we’ll be on the podium there as well. We’ll see how Friday goes and then Saturday—we’ll take it step by step.”

The gap between Bulega and Lecuona didn’t look huge last weekend, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming Superbike calendar rounds. Unlike Phillip Island and Portimão, Assen (April 17–19) will be a venue where the riders arrive without a prior test. It will be crucial to make good use of Friday’s free practice sessions to find a base setup to build on for the rest of the weekend.

Iker seems to have unlocked something in Portugal, even if he rightly wants to keep his feet on the ground. The goal is to confirm his strength at the TT Circuit, where he hopes to take the fight to Bulega. The World SBK championship needs a rider who can make the race outcomes less predictable—an antagonist to the dominant Bulegas we’ve seen in the first two rounds of 2026. Lecuona is in the same team, with the same technical package, and is the leading candidate to fill that role. We also expect other manufacturers to progress, but the former Honda HRC rider is the one with the best chance of challenging his teammate.