Nicolo Bulega extended his lead in the WorldSSP Championship standings with a comfortable victory in the first race of the weekend at Most.

The Italian held his nerve after the race was red flagged and restarted after a lap one skirmish, pulling clear of closest title rival Stefano Manzi to win by just under two seconds.

Indeed, having gotten the hole-shot into the tricky first turn chicane, some bumping and barging behind led to front row starter Raffaele de Rosa running straight on at turn one and Lucas Mahias coming down from his Puccetti Kawasaki, the latter bringing out the red flag as a result.

Nevertheless, Bulega made no mistake at the second attempt from pole position, getting the switch-back on Stefano Manzi after the Ten Kate Yamaha rider ran too deep and eased out wide.

From here Bulega wasn’t headed thereafter, the Aruba.it Ducati rider taking the chequered flag for his ninth victory of the season, increasing his advantage over Manzi to 46 points with one race remaining until the summer break.

Bahattin Sofuoglu returned to the podium in third place on the MV Agusta, the Turkish rider getting the better of de Rosa who, having been given a second chance after his off during the original start, delivered another solid performance on the Orelac Ducati.

Third might have gone the way of Adrian Huertas had he not been handed a late long lap penalty, the MTM Kawasaki rider nevertheless holding onto fifth place, ahead of Marcel Schroetter on the second of the MV Agusta machines and top Triumph rider Niki Tuuli.

Of the Brits, Tom Booth-Amos was in the points once more in 13th place, while Tarran Mackenzie enjoyed an upturn in performance with his run to 17th on the MIE Honda. John McPhee trailed him home to finish 19th.

Most WorldSSP | RACE 1 RESULTS

Saturday | Conditions - Dry, Sunny