Aruba.It Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega completed his dominant Australian WorldSBK weekend by taking victory in Race 2 at Phillip Island.
Bulega had been in a league of his own all weekend and sealed a hat trick of victories with a margin of 2.603s over teammate Alvaro Bautista.
It had been agreed pre-race that the riders may not complete more than 11 laps on a single dry rear tyre due to track temperatures, as the mandatory pit stops remained in place.
Bulega once again got a fantastic start from pole position and was easily able to hold his lead over Andrea Iannone and Scott Redding on the run down to the first corner.
Bautista was hoping to salvage something after starting 11th and made quick progress on the start to move into seventh place.
The Spanish rider was followed through by world champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, who moved from 12th to eighth in the opening two laps.
Bautista continued to showcase the speed of the Ducati and made an easy double overtake on the Yamaha of Andrea Locatelli and the MarcVDS of Sam Lowes.
The former world champion was soon chasing down the podium positions and made a second double overtake on Redding and Petrucci to go third.
Razgatlioglu saw an opportunity to make even more progress but made contact with the Barni Spark racer, apologising to Petrucci but keeping hold of fifth place.
The Turkish rider was given a drop one position penalty for his move on Petrucci, which allowed the Italian back through before the first riders made their pit stops.
Redding was able to get the jump on Bautista in the pitlane to move onto the podium, as both riders undercut a group consisting of Razgatlioglu and the high-flying Yari Montella.
After the pit stops, there was a clear issue with the world champion’s BMW machine as Razgatlioglu dropped out of the points. He came into the pits at the end of the following lap and punched his screen in frustration as he retired from the race.
While BMW struggled with its issues, the factory Ducati team remained perilous, as Bautista made his way back into second with a move on Redding and was followed through by Iannone.
The British rider received a 2.905s time penalty for a pit stop intervention time infringement while running in fourth, which scuppered any chances of making the podium.
The positions on the rostrum were settled with three laps to go, but the remaining battle on the track was for fifth as Lowes and Petrucci fought to the final corner to decide the position.
Out front, Bulega dominated the race to seal his treble of victories in Phillip Island as he took the chequered flag by just over two seconds.
Bautista recovered from 11th to second to complete an authoritative weekend for the factory Ducati team.
Iannone took third for the GoEleven team after remaining largely untroubled throughout the race.
Redding kept hold of his fourth position despite his penalty, as Petrucci won his battle for fifth over Lowes who had to settle for sixth.
Locatelli was the highest placed non-Ducati in seventh as he crossed the line just under a tenth clear of Alex Lowes in eighth and Montella in ninth.
Axel Bassani completed the top ten, seven seconds ahead of the fight between HRC’s Xavi Vierge in 11th and Dominique Aegerter in 12th.
Garrett Gerloff was 13th while the sole BMW of Michael van der Mark took 14th over the line.
Ryan Vickers completed his debut WorldSBK weekend by rounding out the points in 15th.
