Race 2 wet weather action
Qualifying was more favourable for Bulega who, to no one’ s surprise, took out pole with Yari Montella on the Barni Spark V4R and Sam Lowes on the Marc VDS V4R on the front row. Lowes has a strong record in quali but Montella’ s appearance on the front row was a pleasant surprise. Bulega’ s mark of 1m28.244 was four tenths faster than Montella which was an average speed of a touch over 180km / h. The two Bimota boys, Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani were joined by Petrucci on row two. Petrux especially would’ ve been happy with that result as he’ d not looked entirely comfortable on the BMW all week. Further back in the field Bautista, on the sister bike to Montella’ s in twelfth, and Lecouna one-place behind on the other Aruba. it Ducati would not have been getting high-fives from their teams at the end of such a disappointing session.
LET’ S TALK TYRE WEAR Tyre wear concerns had, in recent years, lead to mandatory mid-race tyre swaps which did nothing to improve spectator engagement but, for 2026, Pirelli had applied all its magic to the tyre compounds allowing
for full race distance on one set of tyres and none of those annoying pit stop things.
ONE HORSE RACE( S) Race One was dry, Tissot Superpole had a few spots of rain but nothing that made a difference and Race Two was wet, wet and a little bit more wet. Bulega won them all. By a distance. His quality shone through in the wet and the dry and he was untouchable once he hit the front. In this form, no one will lay down a real challenge to him winning the title this season. Next most consistent was, somewhat unexpectedly, Bassani on the Bimota, just off the podium in Race One and two third place finishes in Tissot Superpole and Race Two were the reward for some sensible, measured riding even when under pressure. Bassani has, perhaps, come of age. Let’ s hope he can repeat this sort of form at upcoming rounds. Baldassarri on the GoEleven Ducati was a revelation, performing well above expectations( which wasn’ t hard as expectations were low). A ninth-place finish in Race Two looks worse than it was from a race pace perspective,
KIWI RIDER 45