Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Bulega second after leading Race 2 for 8 laps. Great comeback by Bautista who starts 11th and finishes on the podium.

[webteam]

---

World Superbike | 2024 | R4 | Misano (Italy) | Sunday 16 June 2024

Bulega second after leading Race 2 for 8 laps. Great comeback by Bautista who starts 11th and finishes on the podium. Pirro crashes out on final lap while battling for P12. Fantastic 1-2 for Huertas in WorldSSP

The Pirelli Emilia Romagna Round ended with another double podium for the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team, with riders Nicolò Bulega and Alvaro Bautista finishing second and third, respectively.

The Italian rider, who also finished second in the Superpole Race, took the lead at Turn 1 and tried to put some distance between himself and the rest of the group. However, thanks to an impressive pace, Razgatlioglu (BMW) managed to overtake him on Lap 8. From that moment onwards, the positions remained unchanged. Nonetheless, it was an extremely solid weekend for Bulega, who is now second in the overall standings of the World Superbike Championship, 21 points behind Razgatlioglu, and with a 3-point advantage over his teammate.

Alvaro Bautista was forced to start 11th on the grid following a crash in the Superpole Race. Nevertheless, the rider from Talavera staged an impressive comeback, concluding on Lap 10 when he overtook Lowes for the third step of the podium.

It was an unfortunate race for Pirro, who crashed after attempting an overtaking maneuver on Lowes (Ducati) for the 12th position.

Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #11)
“I am thrilled. Competing for the first time in Misano with the Superbike and finishing all races in second place is, without a doubt, a great result, even though winning would have been a dream. Anyway, I have to say congratulations to Toprak because he has been really fast. Now we will head to Donington, a circuit that I like a lot.”

Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #1)
“I made a great comeback, and I should say that I had fun. For sure, we are still not in our best shape. We worked a lot on the bike this weekend, trying to find the ideal set-up, which, in the end, we were not able to find. Now, we need to reset and analyze the data in order to arrive at Donington with more certainty.”

WorldSSP

Adrian Huertas and the Aruba.it Racing WSSP team secured a double victory in their Supersport weekend. After a strong start, the Spanish rider had to deal with an issue with his helmet, which he managed to resolve despite losing some precious seconds. Nevertheless, his reaction led him to another win.

Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WSSP #99)
“I am happy that I was able to gift my team two victories in their home round, and it was also important to end this weekend ahead of our rivals, who were competing in front of their crowd. After this race, we will head to tracks that are positive for us, so I am confident we will be able to do well there, too.”