SBK Misano: Bulega is driving everyone crazy; there's no contest anymore

Nicolò Bulega is driving everyone crazy: at Misano he swept the board again, three wins out of three, drumming the others into submission. The rivals vanished from the scene—and so did a good portion of the spectators.

This World Championship with a single protagonist and a Ducati one-make has already said everything there is to say. The problem is we’re only in June and there are still five rounds left until the end of October. We might as well skip straight to next year, when Bulega will be in MotoGP and (perhaps) the organizers will find a way, at the table, to rein in Ducati’s technical dominance.

Once upon a time, Superbike was the most hard-fought championship, with all sorts of drama at every corner. Now every race feels like copy and paste. The latest “showdown” at Misano went exactly like Saturday’s appetizer. Iker Lecuona, the other factory Ducatista, beat Bulega off the line yet again from pole. On Saturday the surprise lasted four corners. This time Lecuona held on for half a lap, but it was even worse, because Nicolò pulled off an overtake with a sky-high talent coefficient right through the Curvone, already the fastest and most spectacular point on the track. These are the moves champions invent to make it clear who’s in charge. The maneuver recalled the lightning pass at the Assen chicane two months ago. Lecuona, who’s been finishing second for eighteen races in a row, got the message loud and clear.

Every time we have to reel off Nicolò Bulega’s ever more mind-blowing stats. This year he’s won them all (21 out of 21), plus the last four of last season. Total: 25. In a month at Donington, in Great Britain, he could surpass Álvaro Bautista’s 27 wins in a single championship in 2023. In the meantime, in passing, he’s drawn level with Toprak Razgatlioglu, who two years ago on the BMW strung together 21. Here, in the previous two years, the Turk had always won, with Bulega finishing second five times. “Without me you’ll be bored,” was the Turkish superstar’s easy prophecy. The numbers are striking, but they don’t do much for the passion.

The Spaniard held firm for five laps, then ran wide into the Carro, and that was that for the last pinch of pathos. The biggest mistake of the afternoon came from Axel Bassani, who had climbed to a lifesaving third place, only to throw it away at the Quercia with just five laps to go. A pity, because getting the Bimota on the podium would have been evocative. Ducati leaves only crumbs, and failing to take advantage even of those—you shouldn’t. The position was inherited by Yari Montella, making the podium exactly identical to the previous two races. Amen.

Photo: Silvio Tosseghini and Mauro Stanzani

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