Jerez WorldSBK LIVE: Reaction after Nicolo Bulega won Race 1 in Spain

Riders are off on their warm-up lap ahead of this 20-lap Race 1 at Jerez.

Here's your starting order for Race 1 with Bulega on that 11th pole of the season.

Yari Montella starts fourth on the grid today with Alex Lowes fifth. They're third and fourth in the championship, respectively, and split by 53 points. If Montella is ahead of Lowes by 38 points at the end of today's Race 1 he will have third in the championship secured.

Montella already wrapped up the independent riders' title in Race 2 at Estoril last week.

Riders are heading out of pit lane on their sighting lap ahead of Race 1 at Jerez.

Things were more straightforward for Maria Herrera, who won her second WorldWCR crown in Race 1 with a P6.

If you remember back to Donington three months ago, she thought she'd won the title there, but was handed a time penalty post-race that cut her celebrations short and forced her to wait until today to mathematically seal the title ahead of Beatriz Neila, who lost out to Paola Ramos on the final lap today and finished second.

While we were away for lunch after Superpole, there was drama in Sportbike as Carter Thompson took out David Salvador in Race 1.

Salvador came into Race 1 with a 12-point lead over Xavi Artigas, but with him not scoring and Artigas winning the race it will be the former Moto3 race winner who takes a 13-point lead into tomorrow's final race of the season.

Welcome back to live coverage of the Jerez WorldSBK, where Race 1 will be getting underway in just under 40 minutes at 15:30 local time.

Crash for Twan Smits at turn 10. He looks to be okay. Just caught the kerb on the outside between nine & 10.

Montella was briefly up to third, but he's been pushed back to fourth as Sam Lowes joins Bulega in the 1m36s and goes up to second.

Bulega improves, 1m36.643s is within hundredths of his lap record from 2025 and puts him 0.3s clear of Lecuona.

Improvement from Lecuona, he goes up to second with a 1m37.098s, agonisingly close to a 1m36s for the Spaniard.

Top-10 after the first runs is as follows:

1. Bulega
2. S. Lowes
3. Lecuona
4. Montella
5. A. Lowes
6. Baldassarri
7. Bridewell
8. Vierge
9. Bassani
10. Bautista

Bulega back to the pits after his first lap. Montella went for a second but only enough for fourth.

Provisional pole for Sam Lowes at a 1m37.4s but it only lasts a few seconds - 1m36.948s from Bulega puts him on top.

Bulega was already the only rider to have lapped in the 1m36s here in WorldSBK and he maintains that for now. Half-a-second off his pole time from 2025 which proves the poor condition of the track this weekend given the step Ducati has made everywhere else.

Alex Lowes 0.2s behind Lecuona with his first lap, but 0.5s up on Bassani who was briefly third before Vierge took that spot.

Lecuona straight into the 1m37s with his first lap but almost a second off Bulega's pole time from a year ago.