Nicolò Bulega went to Estoril as the 2026 champion and left with two of the biggest records in WorldSBK history. Bulega’s WorldSBK weekend in Portugal brought three wins from three races on his Aruba.it Racing Ducati. As a result, he now owns the single-season marks for both wins and points.
He also did it with a round still to go. The 2026 season ends at Jerez this weekend, so both records could grow again before the year is out.
Here is how the Estoril weekend unfolded, race by race, and what the numbers mean against the riders who held the records before him.
Race 1: Bulega’s WorldSBK win number 27
The first race ran on Saturday, October 10. Bulega beat his teammate Iker Lecuona to the flag by 3.870 seconds, according to the Cycle News results report. Rookie Alberto Surra finished third on a Motocorsa Racing Ducati, and Miguel Oliveira was fourth for BMW.
That victory was his 27th of 2026. In doing so, he matched the single-season record that Álvaro Bautista set in 2023. Bautista also rode for Aruba.it Racing – Ducati that year, so the record now belongs to the same garage twice over.
The weekend had started well, too. In Superpole qualifying, Bulega set a lap of 1:33.884, according to Cycle News. That beat the previous Estoril track record of 1:34.203, which Toprak Razgatlioglu set in 2025. It was also his 10th pole of the season.
Superpole Race: a new wins record
On Sunday, the short Superpole Race gave Bulega his chance to move clear of Bautista. This time Lecuona stayed much closer. Even so, Bulega won by 0.734 seconds, with Surra third again.
That made 28 wins in a single season, one more than any rider before him. Crash.net reported that the Superpole Race win broke Bautista’s 2023 mark of 27.
Afterward, Bulega said the records meant a lot to him. “It’s fantastic,” he told WorldSBK.com, according to Crash.net. Still, he added that winning more races mattered most, and that he was already thinking about Jerez.
Race 2: 29 wins and the points record
The second full-length race closed the weekend later on Sunday. Once again, Bulega led Lecuona home, this time by 4.888 seconds, according to the result table published by Crash.net. Surra took third, while Yari Montella was fourth on a Barni Spark Racing Ducati.
That was win number 29 of 2026. In addition, the result settled a second, older record. According to the official WorldSBK website, Bulega scored 62 points in Portugal. That took his season total to 664 points.
WorldSBK says that total beats Jonathan Rea’s single-season record of 663 points, set in 2019. In other words, Bulega needed a perfect Estoril weekend to pass it before the finale, and he got one.
How Rea’s 2019 season set the bar
Rea’s record stood for seven seasons, and it came from a remarkable year. According to WorldSBK’s 2019 season review, Rea finished 2019 with 663 points. That total, the series said at the time, smashed the all-time scoring record for one season.
Back then, the wins record looked very different. Rea won 17 races in 2019, which WorldSBK said equalled his own 2018 tally and Doug Polen’s 1991 mark. By comparison, Bautista pushed the record to 27 in 2023, and Bulega has now taken it to 29.
Part of that jump comes from the modern format. Each round now has three races, including the Superpole Race, so a rider can win three times in one weekend. That is how Bulega could add three wins at Estoril alone.
A Ducati sweep of the podium
The Ducati Panigale V4 R filled every podium place at Estoril. Bulega won all three races, while Lecuona finished second three times, according to Ducati’s own race release. Meanwhile, Surra stood on the third step in each race.
For Surra, the weekend was a big step forward. WorldSBK notes that his first podium in the series came at Cremona, the round before Estoril. Then he added three more in Portugal as a rookie.
Lecuona, for his part, said the team had to work out what it was missing compared with Cremona. That was where he won three races, according to Ducati. Cremona was also where Bulega clinched the 2026 title.
Where the 2026 standings stand before Jerez
After Estoril, Bulega leads the championship with 664 points, while Lecuona is second on 518, according to the Crash.net standings. Montella is third on 290. Montella also clinched the title for the best Independent rider this weekend, according to both WorldSBK and Cycle News.
Only one round remains. The season finale runs at Jerez in Spain from October 16 to 18, according to Cycle News. WorldSBK says 62 more points are on offer there, the same haul Bulega took home from Portugal. As a result, Bulega’s WorldSBK record stands at 29 wins and 664 points with three races left to run.
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