2025 Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK: Race 1 As It Happened

Razgatlioglu runs wide at turn eight on the first lap and relinquishes the lead.

Further back, Aegerter and Sofuoglu have crashed.

It's lights out in Misano and we are underway for Race 1. Decent start for Bassani but it's Razgatlioglu with the holeshot. Bulega up to third off the line.

If qualifying was bittersweet for Bulega with pole position followed by a penalty, it was purely a stinker for Alvaro Bautista. 11th place wasn't even good enough to benefit from Iannone's penalty.

Jonathan Rea is back there on the grid, too. 16th on the grid for the rider who won his first-ever WorldSBK race here back in 2009.

Bulega and Razgatlioglu are the clear favourites for this race. Bassani, who starts second, was half-a-second behind Razgatlioglu in qualifying.

Typically this season, Bulega has had better pace down the stretch in races, his tyres holding on better than Razgatlioglu's, but we will see if the Turkish rider can reverse that trend today.

Nicolo Bulega qualified on pole position this morning with a new lap record at 1:31.618, but will start fourth due to a penalty picked up for impeding Danilo Petrucci.

It means Sam Lowes will start from the front row in third, Axel Bassani is promoted from third to second, and Toprak Razgatlioglu will take off from pole position.

Andrea Iannone was penalised equally to Bulega for the same incident and will start 10th.  His penalty will promote Petrucci from ninth to eighth, and Yari Montella onto the third row in ninth.

2025 Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK - Superpole Result

Iannone and Bulega are both under investigation for riding slowly on the line.

Nicolo Bulega wins Superpole this morning, his 1:31.618 gives him the new lap record by 0.7s over the previous record, too.

Razgatlioglu and Bassani on the front row.

Sam Lowes ahead of Alex Lowes and Remy Gardner on row two.

Iannone, Locatelli, Petrucci on the third row.

Bautista only 11th, between Montella and Lecuona on the fourth row.

And Bulega responds immediately! A 1:31.618 now gives the Italian a 0.2s advantage over Razgatlioglu. Outrageous speed from the pair of them this morning.

Iannone was able to get some kind of tow as well to go fifth, although he's pushed back to sixth by Gardner who briefly goes fifth before Alex Lowes takes that final top-five spot.

Bulega now improving on Razgatlioglu's benchmark...

Razgatlioglu takes provisional pole position with the first-ever sub-1:32 lap in WorldSBK at Misano.

A 1:31.856 puts him on pole by 0.253s.

Sam Lowes up to second with his latest lap on a 1:32.419. Solid lap from the rider who missed all of FP2 yesterday.

Razgatlioglu, Bassani, van der Mark, and Alex Lowes all heading out together now for their respective second runs.

Replay of the Petrucci, Iannone, Bulega incident shows Bulega quite far ahead of the other two, so if there are penalties handed out for that the championship leader should avoid them. Iannone, on the other hand, maybe not.

Bautista only P12 after the first run. He'll need some improvement from there to contend for a podium, you'd have thought, but Superpole continues to be a struggle for the two-time champion at the moment.

First runs concluding now. Razgatlioglu only got one lap in that run because a crash for Ryan Vickers at turn four brought out the yellow flags.

Bulega has a 0.6s advantage over Bassani and Razgatlioglu now.

Petrucci, Sam Lowes, and Iannone provisionally on row two. Petrucci was visibly angry with Iannone and Bulega as they entered the pits and - at least in Petrucci's opinion - impeded him at turn 15.

Razgatlioglu immediately into the 1:32s with his first lap, but a 1:32.754 will be improved on as the session continues.

Such has been the dominance of Bulega and Razgatlioglu this weekend, it very much feels like those two, and then the rest of the field.

Alvaro Bautista, perhaps unsurprisingly, has looked the 'best of the rest' so far this weekend, but Axel Bassani was impressive this morning, too, dropping into the 1:32s on the Bimota at the Italian brand's home round.

If Bulega is the favourite, the Razgatlioglu is the rider who should be best-placed to take pole if Bulega can't execute.

The Turkish rider has been, along with Bulega, clear of the rest of the field so far this weekend.

Given the title situation between the pair of them - Bulega 31 points clear of Razgatlioglu coming into this weekend - somewhere on the front row should do for Razgatlioglu, as long as he's not giving up too much distance to Bulega at the start.

It's perhaps no surprise at this point in the season to consider Nicolo Bulega the favourite for pole.

But the Italian was almost 0.3s faster than Toprak Razgatlioglu in FP3 this morning, and within 0.003s of the all-time lap record the BMW rider set in Superpole last year.

Welcome to live coverage of today's action from the 2025 Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK where Superpole is set to get underway in just under 15 minutes at 11:00 local time.