WorldSBK Jerez: Bulega hat-trick levels Bayliss on 52 wins

Nicolò Bulega left WorldSBK the way he dominated the season: by winning. On Sunday 18 October at Jerez, the Aruba.it Ducati rider took Race 2, his last before joining MotoGP with VR46 in 2027, and completed a weekend hat-trick. He ends the year with 32 wins from 36 races and equals Troy Bayliss's career tally of 52 victories.

A final race under threat of rain

Team-mate Iker Lecuona took the lead into the first corner after a strong start, but Bulega retook it at Turn 4. The two factory Ducatis then pulled clear of the field. Five laps from the end the white flag signalled rain on the way, and riders were allowed to swap bikes four laps from the finish. It made no difference to Bulega, who won by 4.696s from Lecuona for an Aruba.it Ducati one-two.

Behind them, Alvaro Bautista and Sam Lowes fought for the podium. In the light rain, Lowes attacked on the last lap at Turn 2 to take third. Bautista, 41, is leaving the championship, as is Danilo Petrucci.

Numbers beyond the norm

• 32 wins from 36 races: something Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Bautista never managed in their careers;
• 30 wins in a single season already by Saturday, a WorldSBK record;
• a tenth hat-trick of 2026, with the lead lost for only a few corners on lap one of Race 2;
• 52 career wins, the same as Bayliss, one of his idols.

Bulega said everybody in the garage was crying, himself included. The Aruba.it Ducati team scored a one-two in eleven of twelve rounds this season. For the occasion, the Ducatis of Bulega and Lecuona wore a silver livery honouring the 750 Imola Desmo of Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari, winners of the 200 Miles of Imola in 1972. At Bimota, Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani ran a design inspired by the 1985 DB1.

Xavi Artigas, first Sportbike world champion

The Jerez weekend also crowned the first world champion of the new Sportbike category: Spain's Xavi Artigas (Kawasaki). Eighth in the final race, he won the title with 245 points to 237 for fellow Spaniard David Salvador (Kawasaki), who finished fourth and had lost the points lead after a crash on Saturday. Artigas started with a 13-point advantage.

The race was won by Australia's Carter Thompson (Yamaha), ahead of Antonio Torres and Pepe Osuna, both on Kawasakis.

After Jerez

Bulega, 26, joins MotoGP in 2027. Bautista and Petrucci are also leaving the championship, and the futures of both men remain very uncertain.