Nicolo Bulega extended his advantage at the head of the 2023 WorldSSP Championship standings with another crushing victory at Misano, his sixth of the season.

Coming into the race as the clear rider to beat after clinching pole position by more than half-a-second, Bulega ran fourth during the opening turns but was back in front by lap two and never headed thereafter.

Indeed, with Bulega spending much of the 19 lap race with clear air between himself and the chasing pack, only a fluffed getaway that bullied him down behind Federico Caricasulo, Yari Montella and Marcel Schroetter would see him break a sweat.

Picking his way past Montella by the end of the opening lap, Bulega put Caricasulo and then - closest title rival - Schroetter behind him before the field returned to for the start of lap three.

Taking the flag more than 1.5secs clear, the Aruba.it Ducati rider's sixth win from nine races sees him swell his advantage at the head of the overall leaderboard to 41 points over Stefano Manzi.

A strong recovery ride from Manzi, the Ten Kate Yamaha rider made the most of a strong start from 12th on the grid to get stuck in with the lead group during the first half of the race, eventually breaking through into second.

He was made to work for it in the final laps, however, Manzi facing a renewed attack from Althea Ducati's Caricasulo that briefly saw him past on the final lap, only to run wide. Nevertheless, third place for the Italian represents his fourth podium of the year.

After a bright start that saw him lead briefly, Schroetter settled for fourth on the best of the MV Agusta F3 800 Rs. Indeed, the German was the only MV rider to make the finish after team-mate Bahattin Sofuoglu - a first-time race winner last time out in Spain - crashed out early on.

Montella completed the top five, ahead of Simone Corsi, the ex-GP rider showing strongly in only his second WorldSSP start to bag a top six finish on the Altogo Yamaha.

He got the better of Glenn van Straalen in seventh and Jorge Navarro in eighth, while top Triumph rider Niki Tuuli came home ninth with 2017 WorldSSP Champion Lucas Mahias completing the top ten on the highest-placed Kawasaki finisher.

On a difficult day for the British contingent, Tom Booth-Amos crashed out of a points' paying position early on, while John McPhee also missed out on digits with a late fall.

Tarran Mackenzie, meanwhile, was forced to retire early on after being struck by the errant Maiki Abe on lap one, though Harry Truelove made it to the flag in 22nd.

Misano WorldSSP - RACE 1 RESULTS