Nicolo Bulega rewrote yet another chapter of the World Superbike record book at Most on Sunday, sweeping the Czech round to extend his unbeaten run to 19 consecutive wins and bank his fifth Sunday hat-trick of a still-young 2026 season.
The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider held off Honda HRC's Iker Lecuona in Race 2 after a closely fought 22-lap battle around the Czech permanent circuit, with the pair trading slipstream attacks on the long back straight before Bulega's pace edged clear on a worn tyre.
"I'm very happy," Bulega said. "Considering that maybe Balaton and here are not one of my best tracks, so I'm really happy to get another hattrick, my fifth hattrick of this year, 19 races in a row winning, so I'm very happy and I hope to continue like this."
The Italian admitted Most had presented a more uncomfortable challenge than his recent dominance suggested. With Toprak Razgatlioglu now in MotoGP and Alvaro Bautista winding down his factory programme, Bulega has stepped into a vacuum at the top of the championship — but he was honest about the work behind the streak.
"We are working very hard and it pays off," Bulega said. "We are just working hard and trying to improve; even if we are winning, we want to improve for the next one."
Lecuona, who had led portions of Race 1 before Bulega's late surge on Saturday, again ran the Ducati closer than the timing screens suggested through the opening laps of Race 2 before falling back to second.
"Honestly, we changed something on the bike and it was very good the first laps with fresh tyres," Bulega said. "But then from half-race I started to struggle a bit more than yesterday."
The 26-year-old's run, which now stretches back to a sprint win at the Australian opener in February, is the longest unbeaten streak in WorldSBK history and dwarfs the previous benchmark set by Jonathan Rea during Kawasaki's dominant mid-2010s era. His lead at the top of the riders' standings has ballooned to triple-digits with seven rounds still to come.
Bulega is also using the streak as a lever in the silly season conversation, openly hoping that Ducati Corse general manager Luigi Dall'Igna will reward him with a MotoGP seat for 2027.
"I hope Gigi will bet on me next season for MotoGP," Bulega said.
WorldSBK returns to action at the Misano round on June 12-14. For Bulega, it is his home race, and the Italian made no attempt to hide his ambition for it.
"It's an important test, because then there will be Misano," Bulega said. "It's my home race, so I will do everything to win."
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