Balaton Park 2026, Superpole: Bulega does not stop. All-Italian front row

Blue hat-trick

Four consecutive pole positions in this world championship for Nicolò Bulega, who after the fastest laps in Australia, Portugal, and the Netherlands managed to set the best time also in Hungary. A performance that will help the Aruba.it – Ducati team rider in reaching the record for consecutive wins during today’s Race 1, which will see the front row entirely occupied by Italian riders: behind Bulega, in fact, will be Lorenzo Baldassarri (never so high in Superpole), followed by Yari Montella, all in a qualifying session that was complex for Iker Lecuona, 5th behind Oliveira.

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Superpole report

On the twisty Hungarian circuit, which entered the calendar for the first time last year, Bulega was a protagonist from the first minutes of the session, setting the new track record and beating the record he himself had set in 2025. The world championship leader stopped the clock at 1:38.101, then further improved his performance by a few thousandths before returning to the pits. Difficulties, instead, for his teammate Iker Lecuona, who had no fast lap in the first ten minutes, during which Baldassarri set the second-best time ahead of Oliveira. In the last five minutes, the Superpole was partly positive for the Italian riders, with Bulega remaining in pole position ahead of Baldassarri and Yari Montella, who rose to third place. A performance that the Campanian managed to complete despite the crashes of Petrucci and Manzi at the end, with Race 1 thus seeing a trio of Italian riders on the front row.

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Balaton Park 2026, Race 1: the starting grid