SBK Magny-Cours: Bulega is on another planet; a stellar Superpole

There’s little to debate: Nicolò Bulega is today’s Superbike alien, increasingly out of reach for his rivals. The pole he signed on the Magny-Cours rollercoaster was a marvel. Toprak Razgatlioglu’s record has been shattered.

The future VR36 rider in MotoGP 2027 improved the Turkish phenomenon’s benchmark by over six tenths. Track conditions in France are perfect, but on this kind of circuit six tenths is a massive gap. Bulega keeps astonishing, and with this Superbike World Championship basically wrapped up and just awaiting the official seal, we can’t wait to see him thrown into the pack of wolves in the top class.

For Nicolò, it’s the eighteenth pole of his career and the ninth of this season in as many rounds. On the first run with the SCQ qualifying tire, teammate Iker Lecuona rang the alarm, dropping to 1'34"596. But with the second set, Bulega immediately put things back in order: 1'34"318, eye-popping stuff. At Magny-Cours, the wingman might have imagined finding a more approachable Nicolò, now more focused on testing the Ducati 850 he’ll ride in MotoGP than risking it in this World Championship he’s been mauling from the start. But the track’s response, even this time, was ruthless...

When the music stopped, Lecuona also had to yield to Sam Lowes, who is always lethal on a flying lap and promises to be a handful in Race 1 this afternoon. “There’s nothing to say, it’s Bulega who makes the difference,” admitted Ducati’s second rider. For this round, the International Motorcycling Federation tweaked the flow meter values, taking fuel away from Bimota and adding it to BMW and Honda, details here. Naturally, as usual, nothing changed—yet another demonstration that this fuel quantity regulator is useless. Up front on the grid, it’ll be the usual five Ducatis, with Yari Montella and Alberto Surra completing the picture. The rider from Campania is now a podium regular, while for Surra it would be a wonderfully sweet first time. These days Superbike races hang on such fine details, because that Bulega will once again make short work of everyone—we have little doubt.

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