- World Champion at the first attempt. Albert Arenas (Yamaha) clinched the WorldSSP title at the first available opportunity. Heading into the Estoril Round, the penultimate round of the World Championship, the Spaniard from the AS BLU CRU Racing Team held an 86-point lead over Frenchman Valentin Debise (ZXMOTO). His fourth-place finish in Race 1, combined with his rival’s sixth place, mathematically secured the championship. The 2020 Moto3™ World Champion has capped an outstanding debut season in WorldSSP, with three wins and 16 podiums from 21 races, with one round still remaining. Tom Booth-Amos (Triumph) won Race 1, finishing ahead of teammate Oli Bayliss and Jeremy Alcoba (Kawasaki). All three, like the rest of the grid, opted for Pirelli’s standard-range tyres: the soft SC1 at the front and supersoft SCX at the rear. Roberto Garcia (Yamaha) set a new race lap record of 1’39.444, improving on his own benchmark from 2025 by four tenths of a second.
· Bulega matches Bautista’s record. After leaving the Italian Round at Cremona without a race win, despite securing the riders’ World Championship title, Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) returned to the top step in WorldSBK Race 1. His 27th victory of the season draws him level with Álvaro Bautista’s single-season record. Bulega led teammate Iker Lecuona and Alberto Surra across the line, completing an all-Ducati podium. All riders opted for Pirelli’s standard-range tyres, pairing the soft SC1 front with the supersoft SCX rear. On lap three, Bulega also set the fastest race lap, clocking 1’34.964 to lower his own 2025 benchmark by nine thousandths of a second.
· Bulega claims tenth pole of the season. After teammate Iker Lecuona ended his run of nine consecutive pole positions at Cremona, Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) bounced back in this morning’s Superpole session. His time of 1’33.884 secured his tenth pole of the season and set a new all-time lap record at the Estoril Circuit, beating Toprak Razgatlıoğlu’s previous benchmark of 1’34.203, set last year, by 319 thousandths of a second. Bulega was the only rider to break the 1’34 barrier, setting his record on the extrasoft SCQ rear tyre, which all 22 riders used in the session. Lecuona and Alex Lowes (Bimota) completed the front row.
· Takahira and Mendez set for Yamaha R3 World Cup title showdown. Tomorrow’s Race 2 will decide the Yamaha R3 World Cup title. The category uses Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres with the SC1 compound at both ends and is heading into the final round of the season. Following Race 1, won by Brazil’s Aymon Bocanegra, Japan’s Riichi Takahira, who finished fourth, holds a four-point advantage over Dominican rider Xarly Mendez, who started from pole but crossed the line in sixth. Bocanegra remains in contention, although the Brazilian is 23 points behind, with only 25 still available.
Record-breaking pace and a well-deserved title for Arenas
“First of all, I would like to congratulate Albert Arenas and the AS BLU CRU Racing Team on winning the WorldSSP Riders’ Championship. In his debut season in the category, Arenas has demonstrated great maturity and speed, together with outstanding consistency, as reflected in his 16 podium finishes across the 22 races held so far.
Race 1 confirmed the highly competitive nature of the category, with three different manufacturers represented in the top four. Performance improved steadily throughout the weekend, with riders making increasingly effective use of the potential offered by the standard-range supersoft SCX rear tyre, as demonstrated by the new lap records set in qualifying and in the race.
In WorldSBK, we also recorded a significant improvement compared with last year’s event, as shown by the new all-time qualifying lap record, the new fastest race lap and the reduction in overall race time. These performances were achieved using the same extrasoft and supersoft rear solutions as last year: at the time, these were development tyres in specifications E0479 and E0126, whereas they have now become the standard-range SCQ and SCX, respectively. These results are all the more significant given that rising temperatures and stronger winds considerably reduced the grip level of the asphalt”.
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