Perfect Saturday for Bulega and Pirelli in Hungary

· Bulega’s tenth win. Italian rider Nicolò Bulega on Ducati opened the WorldSBK Hungarian Round by winning Race 1 from pole position ahead of teammate Iker Lecuona and Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (BMW). The entire grid used Pirelli SC1 soft front tyres and SCX supersoft rears, the latter making its debut at Balaton Park Circuit. In a race that recorded an average lap time seven and a half tenths quicker than last year, Bulega also set the new race lap record with 1’38.783, improving the previous benchmark by 0.601 seconds.

· Record-breaking SCQ. In WorldSBK qualifying, Bulega set the new outright lap record at Balaton Park Circuit using the SCQ range rear tyre in the extrasoft compound, improving on the fresh benchmark of 1’38.339 that he himself had set during Saturday morning’s Free Practice 3, achieved with the SCX supersoft rear tyre. Compared with Toprak Razgatlıoğlu’s 2025 pole record, Bulega’s 1’38.094 — the rider having claimed every Superpole so far this season — was 0.263 seconds quicker.

· SuperSport progress with SCX. WorldSSP Race 1 was won by French rider Valentin Debise (ZXMOTO), ahead on the podium of Spain’s Albert Arenas (Yamaha) and Turkey’s Can Öncü (Yamaha), all using the soft SC1 front and supersoft SCX rear combination from the range. It was an extremely fast race, completed seven seconds quicker overall than last year, with Arenas setting the fastest lap in 1’42.737 — 0.559 seconds faster than the previous race benchmark and also 0.062 seconds quicker than the 2025 outright lap record. That record had already been beaten by 0.749 seconds by Arenas himself in yesterday’s qualifying session (1’42.050).

· The other classes. In the third round of the FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship, victory went to María Herrera ahead of Beatriz Neila and Paola Ramos. Also making its seasonal debut was the Yamaha R3 World Cup, a category equipped with Pirelli DIABLO Superbike™ tyres in SC1 compound on both axles, in 110/140 sizes. Brazilian rider Aymon Bocanegra won the first of the two Hungarian races.

The SCX supersoft proves highly effective at Balaton Park
 
“For this second visit of the FIM Superbike World Championship to Balaton Park Circuit, thanks to the data collected from last year’s edition, we decided to make the softest tyre range available to the riders. As the results showed, the decision certainly paid off. Despite the track initially being rather dirty but rapidly evolving, tyre performance was consistently optimal, with lap times dropping quickly from the very first free practice sessions. While at the front the riders immediately appreciated the stability of the SC1 range soft, at the rear the SCX supersoft — absent from last year’s allocation — also proved effective straight away, allowing Bulega in this morning’s warm-up to go below the lap record set in qualifying last year by Toprak Razgatlıoğlu using the SCQ extrasoft. These performances were repeated in Race 1, where Bulega claimed victory while lowering the race lap record by six tenths of a second.
The SCQ extrasoft, making its first appearance of the season here in Hungary, enabled Bulega during the Superpole qualifying session to establish the new outright Balaton Park lap record, improving by more than a quarter of a second the record set last year, also thanks to asphalt grip that improved significantly session after session. With temperatures expected to rise, it will be interesting to see whether any riders decide to use it tomorrow in the Superpole Race.
Finally, very positive indications also came from WorldSSP, with new records set both over a single lap and in race pace and distance, further confirming the competitiveness of the SCX supersoft range tyre in all conditions”.