Bulega completes a hat-trick in France with Pirelli SCX

· Bulega makes it 26. Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) is getting ever closer to a perfect season, with the Italian leaving Magny-Cours having secured his eighth hat-trick in nine rounds. After winning Race 1 yesterday, he claimed both the Superpole Race and Race 2 today, bringing his tally to 26 wins in 27 races contested this season. In three weeks’ time, when the FIM WorldSBK World Championship heads to Cremona Circuit for the Italian Round, the tenth of 12 events on the calendar, Bulega will have his first opportunity to clinch the title. Race 2 was red-flagged with one lap remaining, with Bulega joined on the podium by teammate Iker Lecuona and Yari Montella for another Ducati 1-2-3 finish. As yesterday, all riders started with Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike production supersoft SCX tyres at the rear, while the soft SC1 was the preferred option at the front.

· Another record for SCX. The Superpole Race produced the same podium as the afternoon race, with Bulega once again ahead of fellow Ducati riders Lecuona and Montella. All three opted for Pirelli’s supersoft SCX rear tyre, with the grid split evenly between SCX and extrasoft SCQ, with 10 riders on each, while all riders selected the soft SC1 production tyre at the front. Bulega also set a new race lap record, stopping the clock at 1’34.750, 280 thousandths of a second faster than the Race 1 record he had set the previous day, and 750 thousandths quicker than Toprak Razgatlioğlu’s 2025 race record of 1’36.500. It was also 180 thousandths faster than Razgatlioğlu’s outright lap record set last year, while the overall race time was 6.489 seconds faster than in last year’s Superpole Race.

· Garcia wins in WorldSSP. Roberto Garcia (Yamaha) won WorldSSP Race 2, held over just five laps following a red flag, taking advantage of leader Can Öncü’s mistake three corners from the finish to claim his first victory of the season. World Championship leader Albert Arenas (Yamaha) finished second, ahead of Valentin Debise (ZXMOTO). All riders opted for the soft SC1 compound at the front and the supersoft SCX at the rear. With the final lap completed in 1’39.743, Arenas also set a new race lap record, improving Tom Booth-Amos’ mark from yesterday’s Race 1 by 125 thousandths of a second. Xavi Artigas (Kawasaki) won World Sportbike Race 2, while Japan’s Richi Takahira completed a perfect weekend in the Yamaha R3 World Cup by also winning Race 2.

Production SCX confirms its outstanding versatility and competitiveness
 
“The FIM Superbike World Championship French Round concludes with excellent results for the tyres across all categories, both in terms of outright lap times and consistency and performance over race distance. Compared to a year ago, when Pirelli provided Superbike riders with the same softer solutions, then still development tyres and now promoted to the production range, the comparison highlights a significant improvement in performance.
Both the SCX supersoft rear and the SCQ extrasoft allowed riders to achieve outstanding results, enabling them to lap at a much faster pace than a year ago. The average improvement in race lap times was one second in today’s Race 2, up to the point when the red flag was shown. Even over a single lap, Bulega’s time in the Superpole Race, when he went faster than Razgatlioğlu’s outright record set in qualifying last year with the SCQ development tyre in E0479 specification, provides further evidence of the extensive development work resulting from the close collaboration between Pirelli engineers and engineers from the various manufacturers.
By now, we are well aware of the SCX’s outright competitiveness, even in situations with significantly different temperatures. In this respect, today’s Superpole Race grid being evenly split between riders choosing the extrasoft SCQ and those opting for the SCX confirms that Pirelli’s products allow riders to make alternative choices while remaining equally competitive”.