Nicolo Bulega has taken a significant step towards the 2023 WorldSSP Championship crown as he completed a dominant double victory at Donington Park, while his closest title rivals Stefano Manzi and Marcel Schroetter ran into trouble.

The Italian came into Round 6 with a comfortable 36 point advantage over Manzi, but will now leave the British venue with a more commanding 55 point lead in hand over the Italian.

Though not quite the repeat of his textbook lights-to-flag victory from race one after Yari Montella got the jump on him down to Redgate, Bulega swiftly regained composure to retake the lead on the run down to the chicane.

From here Bulega was in a class of his own, the Aruba.it Racing rider steadily multiplying his advantage over the opposition to bring it home for his eighth win of the year and head up a Ducati 1-2-3.

Fresh from his first podium of the season in race one aboard the Barni Spark Ducati Panigale V2, Montella went one better in race two to collect a second place, the Italian finishing a comfortable distance up on Althea Racing’s Federico Caricasulo.

The pair were the main beneficiaries from a curious low-side by Manzi on the Ten Kate Yamaha at the Melbourne hairpin, the ex-Moto2 rider nonetheless getting back going again after laying it down. 

Prompting an aggressive recovery up the order, though Manzi’s determined - and at times ragged - fight back from just outside the top ten led to a penalty for nudging Lucas Mahias onto the grass, he was still fifth by the flag. 

He crossed the line behind Adrian Huertas, the MTM Kawasaki achieving the best result of his WorldSSP career in fourth, a status shared with fellow ZX-6R rider and former WorldSSP 300 title rival Tom Booth-Amos, the Motozoo rider delighting the home crowd with a strong run to a personal best sixth place.

Valentin Debise was seventh, the Frenchman faring better than his race one sparring partner Schroetter, who failed to finish after crashing at the same Goddards corner he ran both himself and GMT94 rider wide and down the order in sight of the finish line on Saturday.

Bahattin Sofuoglu spared some blushes for the MV Agusta Reparto Corse team in eighth, with Raffaele de Rosa and Glenn van Straalen completing the top ten. 

Further back, there was a well-deserved point for 15th place wild-card Rhys Irwin on the Astro JJR Suzuki GSX-R750, unlike John McPhee and Tarran Mackenzie, who couldn’t ride the wave of home support higher than 18th and 23rd.