Cremona WorldSBK LIVE: Reaction from Race 1 in Italy as Lecuona dominates Bulega

Safety car off on its pre-race sighter. Five minutes until lights out now.

Just coming towards the end of the pre-race faff now. National anthem is done and someone is parachuting in for presumably an important reason.

Here's your starting order for Race 1 with Iker Lecuona starting on that first Ducati pole, and first pole since 2022. Bulega second, out-qualified by a team-mate for the first time in his WorldSBK career.

Pit lane is open and the riders are heading out on their sighting lap ahead of Race 1.

Still half-an-hour to go until Race 1 starts in Cremona, but we're currently looking at 25C air temperature and 30C track temperature - comfortably the warmest conditions we've had all weekend.

By this point you're probably aware of Bulega's title opportunity today. It's a bit of a long shot to get it done in Race 1, especially given how strong Lecuona has been this weekend, but you can familiarise yourself with the Race 1 permutations here.

The World Supersport race has just finished at Cremona. Jeremy Alcoba took his first victory in the class, while second for Albert Arenas strengthens his position at the top of the standings  - 77 points is his gap ahead of Race 2 tomorrow over Valentin Debise.

Welcome back to live coverage of today's WorldSBK action at Cremona, where Race 1 will be starting in just under 50 minutes at 15:30 local time.

2026 italian worldsbk - superpole result

Late crashes now for Bassani, Locatelli, and Sam Lowes. 

Turn 5-6 for Bassani, turn two for Locatelli, final corner for Lowes. Yellows will cost more laps.

And now it's Lecuona to pole with a minute to go, and Bulega had backed out of his final lap.

Here comes Bulega, breaking Surra's heart. 1m27.297s puts him on provisional pole and he's visibly pumped with that.

P5 for Bulega with his first valid lap. Decent banker but he'll want more than that.

Surra to pole! He takes advantage of Lecuona's mistake and he has provisional pole with four minutes to go.

Mistake for Lecuona, he's run off in the early part of the lap but stayed on it fortunately for him. Sketchy one.

Riders heading out for their second runs now. Only 16 riders with a valid lap at the moment with all the yellow flags.

Bulega's lap was cancelled for yellow flags, so obviously didn't avoid the yellows at the final corner for Rato.

Montella up to second as a result of that and Baldassarri on the front row in third.

Bulega up to second with his first valid laps. Managed to get through the final sector just after Rato's bike was cleared.

Another crash, this time for Rato at the final corner and yellows will blow a few laps there.

Lecuona under the lap record on his first lap, 1mm27.639s. He was ahead of Dixon on-track so was no affected by yellow flags.

Early crash for Dixon. He'd been third in FP3, but he's dropped it on his first flying lap and he'll be starting from the back of the grid.

Just under 10 minutes to go until Superpole starts. 20C air temperature and 24C track temperature, so pretty perfect conditions.