Nicolò Bulega has secured the 2026 World Superbike Championship at Cremona, becoming the first Italian rider to win the WorldSBK title with Ducati and ending a 14-year wait for an Italian champion.
Bulega completed a remarkable title-winning campaign with second place in Race 2 at the Cremona Circuit, doing exactly what was required to put the championship beyond reach with two rounds still remaining.
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider needed only a top-five finish in the final race of the Italian round. He comfortably achieved that target, following teammate Iker Lecuona home to seal his first WorldSBK crown.
Lecuona may have dominated the Cremona weekend, winning Race 1, the Superpole Race and Race 2, but Sunday ultimately belonged to Bulega and Ducati.
Bulega seals the championship with second place
Lecuona made another strong start from pole position in Race 2 and quickly established himself at the front.
Bulega initially had Alberto Surra applying pressure behind him but soon settled into second place. With the championship firmly in his hands, there was little reason to take unnecessary risks chasing his teammate.
Lecuona gradually stretched his advantage and crossed the line 8.590 seconds ahead to complete the first WorldSBK hat-trick of his career.
Bulega followed Lecuona home in second, with Yari Montella third on another Ducati. Those 20 points took the new champion to 602, giving him an insurmountable advantage over Lecuona on 469 with Estoril and Jerez still to come.
It was a controlled end to a weekend in which Bulega had unusually been forced to play the long game. Two crashes during Friday practice were followed by second place behind Lecuona in both Race 1 and the Superpole Race. That delayed the title celebrations until Race 2, but Bulega never needed to turn the finale into an unnecessary fight.
A historic title for Ducati
Bulega’s championship carries particular significance for Ducati.
This is the Italian manufacturer’s 17th WorldSBK riders’ championship, extending a record built across some of the most successful periods in Superbike history. Remarkably, none of Ducati’s previous 16 riders’ crowns had been won by an Italian.
Bulega has now changed that.
His triumph also makes him only the second Italian rider to win the World Superbike Championship. Max Biaggi was previously the country’s sole champion, taking the title with Aprilia in 2010 and again in 2012.
That means Bulega’s success ends a 14-year wait for another Italian WorldSBK champion — achieved aboard an Italian motorcycle, at an Italian circuit and during Ducati’s centenary year.
The crown adds another distinction to Bulega’s career too. After winning the World Supersport championship with Ducati in 2023, he becomes the first rider to take world titles in both WorldSSP and WorldSBK.
A season built on extraordinary dominance
Cremona was unusual precisely because Bulega spent most of the weekend following another motorcycle. For much of 2026, nobody has been able to get near him.
Across the first eight rounds, Bulega won 23 of 24 races, including an extraordinary sequence of 21 victories to start the season. Combined with four wins at the end of 2025, that produced a record run of 25 consecutive WorldSBK victories.
By the end of Cremona he had won 26 of the season’s first 30 races, finishing second in the other four. He has also set records for consecutive wins and poles while reaching the podium in every race of the campaign so far.
The new-generation Panigale V4 R has therefore done considerably more than start strongly: it has immediately become the benchmark package in the championship.
It is a significant turnaround in Bulega’s WorldSBK story. After winning the WorldSSP title for Ducati in 2023, he stepped into the Superbike class in 2024 and won on his debut at Phillip Island.
He then finished championship runner-up in both 2024 and 2025, twice finding Toprak Razgatlioglu standing between him and the title. With Razgatlioglu moving to MotoGP for 2026, Bulega entered this season as the natural favourite and converted that opportunity into one of the most dominant WorldSBK campaigns of the modern era.
His next chapter is already set. Tech Torque Media reported earlier this month that Bulega will join VR46 Ducati in MotoGP for 2027, giving his title-winning WorldSBK season an added sense of completion before that move.
Lecuona gives Ducati another reason to celebrate
Bulega’s championship should not overshadow an exceptional Cremona weekend from Iker Lecuona.
The Spaniard took pole position and then won all three races across the weekend. Race 2 completed the first WorldSBK hat-trick of his career and demonstrated just how formidable the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati pairing has been in 2026.
Ducati had already made the riders’ championship an internal affair earlier in the season, while the manufacturers’ and teams’ championships have also gone to the Italian marque.
Cremona therefore completed the picture: riders’, manufacturers’ and teams’ honours all secured by Ducati.
Bulega finally has his WorldSBK crown
After two consecutive runner-up seasons, Nicolò Bulega no longer has to wonder what it will take to become World Superbike Champion.
The answer was an extraordinary 2026 campaign built on outright speed, relentless consistency and a Ducati package that its rivals have rarely been able to match.
Cremona was not Bulega’s most dominant weekend. In some ways, that made the championship-clinching ride more revealing. With Lecuona faster, he resisted the temptation to turn a comfortable title-winning position into an unnecessary fight, took the points and brought the Panigale V4 R home.
For Bulega, it is a first WorldSBK crown. For Italy, it is a first champion since 2012. And for Ducati, after 17 riders’ championships, it is finally one won by an Italian rider.
