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After winning Race 1 on Saturday, Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) also took the win in Superpole Race and Race2 raced today in Phillip Island, Australia, giving Ducati a fantastic hat trick of wins in the first round of the WorldSBK Championship. In all races, as well as in qualifying, Bulega used the new Pirelli rear tire in D0922 specification, combining it with the hard SC2 in Race 1 and the medium SC1 for short race and Race 2.
Today's Superbike races were held with asphalt temperatures around 45 degrees Celsius, about 10 less than those recorded in Race 1 yesterday. Sunday's WorldSBK podiums were the preserve of Ducati riders: in Superpole Race Bulega was joined by Andrea Iannone, second, and Danilo Petrucci, third. In Race 2, on the other hand, it was Álvaro Bautista who took second place ahead of Iannone. The first six bikes across the finish line in Race 2 were all Ducati and all equipped with D0922 compound rear, except for Iannone's bike, which always used the D0286 compound.
For Race2 WorldSSP the riders confirmed the compounds already used yesterday in Race 1, in fact they all used the medium SC1 front and the medium A1128 rear, with a peculiarity: the Triumph riders, including the race winner Tom Booth-Amos, at the pit-stop did not change the front, completing the entire race distance with only one tire. Second place for Race 1 winner Stefano Manzi (Yamaha), third poleman Bo Bendsneyder (MV Agusta).
"It was a very intense week in which the tires were used in very different conditions, both with cooler or average asphalt temperatures, as in testing and today, and very high as on Saturday," explained Giorgio Barbier, motorcycle racing director, "This allowed us to gather useful information on the behavior of the new tires we had selected for this round. In the night between Saturday and Sunday, it rained heavily, resulting in a zero track evolution and the loss of rubber deposited on the asphalt in recent days. At the same time, however, today's temperatures were significantly lower than on Saturday benefiting tire performance, which is also why today's race times were faster than yesterday's. So once again Phillip Island proved to be an excellent proving ground for taking the tires to the limit and evaluating their behavior in a variety of situations. Certainly this is a very variable circuit, where the asphalt temperatures have a significant impact on the performance of the tires, which are put to the test in hot weather. Congratulations to Bulega and to Ducati, which practically monopolized the superbike podiums this Australian weekend."
