2026 Portuguese WorldSBK Race 2 Reaction LIVE: Bulega completed Portimao treble

Montella and Vierge down at turn five.

Separate incidents. Alex Lowes went in deep as well, maybe sucked Montella in.

We're back in that familiar order: Bulega, Lecuona, Oliveira at the beginning of lap four as Lecuona makes the move at turn one.

Bulega still around 0.5s clear of Oliveira who is under pressure from Lecuona.

Lowes still fourth but Montella is closing in in fifth.

Bulega with around half-a-second now over Oliveira, then it's Lowes and Lecuona.

Lecuona then makes the move on Lowes into turn one.

Montella up to fifth at the beginning of lap two on Sam Lowes, then Alex Lowes gets passed for second by Oliveira at turn three.

Bulega leads the opening lap, top four just starting to break away from Sam Lowes in fifth.

Warm-up lap is underway ahead of Race 2 in Portimao.

Pit lane is open in Portimao for Race 2 and the riders are on their way to the grid.

Not to keep going on about how dominant Bulega is at the minute, but to put into perspective the command he has over the current WorldSBK field:

Bulega hasn't been beaten in any race by a rider other than Toprak Razgatlioglu since the Superpole Race at Balaton Park last summer when he finished 11th after making a wrong decision on tyre choice. 

In a dry race, the last time he was beaten by a rider other than Razgatlioglu in WorldSBK was Race 2 at Aragon 2024 when he finished third and Alvaro Bautista won.

The last time he was beaten by a rider other than Razgatlioglu who was riding a motorcycle other than a Ducati was the Cremona Superpole Race in 2024 when he was fourth and Alex Lowes finished second on the Kawasaki. That was 51 races ago, or the equivalent of 17 rounds.

Just over half-an-hour away from the final race of the weekend in Portimao.

Nicolo Bulega has won both races so far this weekend, and remains unbeaten this season - since the Superpole Race at Estoril last November, indeed.

Iker Lecuona and Miguel Oliveira have finished on the podium behind Bulega in both races so far, but Lecuona admitted yesterday that Bulega's advantage is even bigger than it appeared in Race 1 - which the Italian won by 2.5 seconds - because he was able to protect his tyres whereas the riders behind were pushing harder.

The whole top-five was the same in the Superpole Race this morning as in Race 1 yesterday, with Alex Lowes fourth and Sam Lowes fifth. It seems unlikely they can move forwards from there in Race 2, although both have better starting positions this afternoon.

One rider who could get in the mix in Race 2  is Yari Montella, if he gets a start. He was running second yesterday before he crashed out on lap five.

Here is the end of the Supersport race. What a finish between the three Yamahas battling for third!

Welcome back to live coverage of today's WorldSBK races from Portimao.

We're about to enter the final five laps of the Supersport race and are just over an hour out from the start of Race 2.

Onto the final lap now and Bulega remains around 2s out front. The gap has overall been trimmed by around half-a-second since Lecuona passed Oliveira a few laps ago.

Oliveira still holding on to third over Lowes.

Sam Lowes, meanwhile, has got himself back up to fifth.

It's more or less as you were at the front with two to go, but Oliveira has now dropped off Lecuona and back into the clutches of Lowes.

Lecuona remains under pressure from Oliveira and Lowes has dropped slightly now.

Still 2s for Bulega at the front.

Leucona has cut the gap to Bulega by a coupleof tenths on that lap. Oliveira sort of going with him and Lowes remains in the podium battle.

Bahattin Sofuoglu crashed at turn 13.

Oliveira really dropping off now, Lecuona passes him into turn one at the beginning of lap six and Bulega now almost 2.5s clear at the front.

Bulega over a second clear at the front now.

Oliveira remains second and with 0.4s over Lecuona, who still has Lowes for company.

Montella is pulling away from the chasing pack but is almost 2s behind Lowes in fourth and was a tenth slower on the last lap.

Front four still more or less together through the first three laps, although Bulega is now out to 0.6s over Oliveira.