The 2026 Superbike World Championship now has an owner after the final round in Jerez. Although everything was set for Toprak Razgatlioglu to win the title, the truth is that Bulega brought out his entire arsenal since Friday.
In the end we had to wait until the third race of the weekend to see Toprak win the title, but before that there was a lot to cut in a weekend that not only marked the end of the championship, but the end of an era.
SBK Jerez Race 1: Bulega does not forgive
Bulega’s objective was clear and he already demonstrated it by taking pole position. There was no need to give up a single point more and that was what he came out determined to do. Since the red light went out, the Ducati rider took the lead and began to open up a gap with respect to the rest of the grid.
Razgatlioglu, who did not have the best of starts, lost valuable time until reaching second position on the second lap, which allowed Bulega to escape. From that moment and with a Toprak that was seen having difficulties with the front axle, something that happened all weekend, Nicolo began to build a new victory after dominating from start to finish.
While Razgatlioglu simply seemed to not want to take any more risks and, in turn, escaped from the peloton, he signed a second position that minimized losses. And being second in all the races of the weekend he won handily. The one who made a spectacular comeback from the middle of the race was Álvaro Bautista, the Spaniard went from ninth to third place battling and overtaking his rivals one after another until finishing third.
Andrea Iannone crossed the finish line fourth, with Xavi Vierge fifth, Alex Lowes sixth, Andrea Locatelli seventh, Remmy Gardner eighth, Tarran Mackenzie ninth and Michael van der Mark closing the top 10.
SBK Jerez Superpole Race: Nicolo short circuits and takes Toprak ahead… and the race
The Superpole Race came with an advantage in favor of Toprak of 34 points, so basically the title was in his pocket, with the Turk limiting himself to not losing more than 9 points. But what happened after the race started, where Razgatlioglu took the lead, was not something we could have foreseen.
Toprak, unlike on Saturday, came out to take the lead, but in turn six, in an action of excessive optimism at best, Bulega touched the Turk in full support who ended up going to the ground. As a consequence of the action, Nicolo was penalized with a long lap, but the level of both Bulega and Razgatlioglu has been so high this year that, despite serving the penalty, he did not lose first position at any time.
Thus, Bulega rose to the top of the podium, with Álvaro Bautista second and Andrea Iannone third. Xavi Vierge, Alex Lowes, Andrea Locatelli, Tarran Mackenzie and Iker Lecuona completed the top8. Furthermore, this race was the last for Rea, who crashed on the first lap, taking Gardner ahead of him, and as a result of the fall, he was declared unfit to start. An unfair way to end the most impressive career of the most successful WSBK driver.
SBK Jerez Race 2: Bulega continued rowing, but the title went to Toprak
Toprak’s accident meant more than not scoring points, it meant starting from tenth position. With 22 points of difference in his favor he could take things easy and securing a twelfth position would have given him the title, but he also started in the middle of the pack, which increased the risk.
So with that, the traffic light went out and Bulega went out to do the only thing he could do, give his all to achieve victory. Of course, before that he had to overtake Bautista who overtook him at the start. While the two Ducati riders cemented the “one-two” for the official team, and Bautista secured the final third place, Toprak was relatively calm, recovering position after position until finishing in the final third place that gave him the title with thirteen points of advantage in the general classification. Now, with three championships under his belt, the Turk is already preparing for his MotoGP adventure that will start in the coming weeks.
Behind the drivers on the podium finished Locatelli, Vierge, Lowes, Iannone, Mackenzie, Lecuona and Bassani completing the last top 10 of the season.
