Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega produced a stunning last-lap WorldSBK Superpole victory over championship rival Toprak Razgatioglu in Estoril.
Ducati’s Bulega out-dragged Razgatlioglu’s RoKiT BMW to the finish line in the closest victory in WorldSBK history, winning by a margin of just 0.003s.
Razgatlioglu got away from pole position and led Danilo Petrucci down into the first Turn.
An audacious move from Petrucci, who was looking to seal the Independent title, saw him go through on Razgatlioglu, and the Yamaha pairing of Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli quickly followed the Ducati.
The BMW’s straight line speed advantage over the Yamaha allowed the championship leader to easily overtake the pair to retake his second place.
At the same turn where Petrucci overtook him for the lead, Razgatlioglu was able to repay the favour as he regained his lead.
Petrucci lost his momentum after dropping down to second and was overtaken by his compatriots Locatelli and Bulega.
Bulega, using the super soft tyre compound, began closing the gap to rival Razgatlioglu after overtaking Yamaha’s Locatelli to move up to second.
The championship rivals traded the fastest laps, and the Ducati rider looked to cut the gap to Razgatlioglu as his qualifying tyres still had the pace to challenge for the win. Meanwhile, the Turkish rider continued to hold firm out front.
Razgatlioglu seemed to have the race under control with five laps to go. However, the Ducati rookie still elected to push to the absolute limit, setting a new lap record with two laps remaining to get onto the rear wheel of his championship rival.
In a thrilling final lap, Bulega continued with his momentum. He drew level with Razgatlioglu at the final corner and took the chequered flag to complete a remarkable comeback.
The second Aruba.it Racing – Ducati of Alvaro Bautista rounded out the podium after a comeback of his own, ahead of Locatelli and Petrucci.
Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes came home in sixth. The Honda pairing of Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona continued their impressive displays on the ever-improving Japanese marque to finish in seventh and eighth.
Andrea Iannone crossed the line in ninth, narrowly clear of the satellite BMW duo of Scott Redding and Garrett Gerloff.
Kawasaki’s Axel Bassani and RoKiT BMW’s Michael van der Mark had their own battle to the line, with the Italian edging out the Dutchman for 12th.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi took the flag in 14th ahead of MarcVDS’ Sam Lowes who came home in 15th.
