Nicolo Bulega extended his victory tally to 15 victories from the 2023 WorldSSP Championship season as he kicked off the finale in Jerez with a dominant run to the flag.

The Italian, who was crowned WorldSSP Champion last time out at Portimao, was untroubled upon grabbing the hole-shot from pole position into Turn 1, Bulega simply multiplying his advantage over the 17 laps to leave his rivals fighting it out for the remaining positions.

Indeed, Bulega - who will step up to WorldSBK with champions Aruba.it Racing next season - demanded little airtime as he streaked out in front, with the battles behind him instead commanding the majority of the attention.

That meant focusing on an engrossing tussle for second between Stefano Manzi and Federico Caricasulo that would eventually go the way of the former.

Indeed, though a poor start left Manzi trailing in sixth place initially, the Ten Kate Yamaha rider worked his way through to second place at the mid-way point.

To his credit though, Caricasulo stuck with his countryman for the remainder of the race, even popping through on the run down to Turn 5 on the penultimate lap, only to run wide and allow Manzi back through to a second place he’d hold to the flag.

Jorge Navarro made late gains to catch and pass Valentin Debise for fourth and fifth respectively, while Adrian Huertas flew the flag for Kawasaki with his run to sixth.

Raffaele de Rosa enjoyed a lonely run to seventh on the Orelac Ducati, while Lorenzo Dalla Porta came out top of an entertaining scrap for eighth, the Evan Bros Yamaha rider beating Triumph’s Niki Tuuli and EAB Yamaha’s Glenn van Straalen across the line by less than half-a-second.

It had been a four-way fight for eighth but plucky wild-card Yeray Ruiz - having just passed Dalla Porta - would throw it away on the final lap with a last lap crash.

Elsewhere, MV Agusta endured a horrible race with Marcel Schroetter crashing early on, the German laying it down at Turn 5 before moments later Bahattin Sofuoglu did exactly the same at the same bend. Though they’d get up and running again, they could only recover to 15th and 16th respectively.

Jerez WorldSSP | Race 1 Results