Nicolo Bulega secured the title with two rounds to spare during a stunning weekend for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship at the Cremona Circuit. Teammate Iker Lecuona also put on a show by romping to a maiden hat-trick. The numbers behind the championship-winning campaign and the EICMA Italian Round tell an astonishing story of dominance.
Bulega took 102 races to be crowned Champion. Only Ben Spies needed fewer races, taking just 28 in his 2009 rookie campaign, while Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa both required 105. Bulega also extended his record-podium streak to 43 races with his P2 finishes at Cremona, blowing past the previous record of 25. If he finishes on the podium in the final six races, that streak will reach 49 before he moves to MotoGP.
Race 2 at Cremona brought Bulega his 30th podium of the season. The all-time single-season record for rostrums still belongs to Jonathan Rea with 34 in 2019. Meanwhile, the #11 sits on 26 wins after taking a treble of P2 finishes at Cremona, leaving him just one shy of Alvaro Bautista's 2023 single-season victory record of 27 with Barni Spark Racing Team. Between Estoril 2025 and Misano 2026, Race 2, Bulega managed an all-time streak of 25 consecutive wins, alongside a record-shattering 10 poles in a row from Jerez 2025 to Magny-Cours 2026, beating Rea's previous mark of 8 in 2021.
Statistically, Bulega stands proudly as the second Italian WorldSBK Champion, following Biaggi in 2010 and 2012. Like Bulega, Biaggi won his titles on Ducati machinery, and in 2010 he also secured the crown on home soil. Race 1 at Cremona marked Bulega's 100th WorldSBK start, a milestone where he had already recorded 46 wins and 84 podiums. With Sunday's two rostrums included, his total stands at 86 podiums from 102 races, putting him just one behind Aaron Slight for a place in the all-time top-ten list.
Other machines and riders made serious headlines too. Lecuona became the sixth rider in the hat-trick club, joining Bautista, Rea, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Danilo Petrucci from ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, and Bulega. Cremona has now seen a hat-trick hero in all three rounds held there: Petrucci in 2024, Bulega in 2025, and Lecuona in 2026. Lecuona also claimed his second WorldSBK pole, 1449 days after his first at Catalunya in 2022, making him the first teammate to outqualify Bulega in WorldSBK.
There was joy further down the pit lane as Alberto Surra from Motocorsa Racing took his first WorldSBK rostrum with P3 in the Tissot Superpole Race at Cremona. Honda also celebrated getting back into the top six for the first time since Jerez Race 2, 2025, thanks to Jake Dixon from Honda HRC finishing P6 in Race 2. Ducati themselves reached 10 poles in 2026, a feat they last achieved in 2003, with Yamaha's 2009 record of 11 poles now firmly in their crosshairs.
