Italy’s greatest athlete and four-time tennis Grand Slam winner Jannik Sinner left a message for 2 of Italy’s present racing stars after his historic victory on the Miami Open, however he’s not the nation’s most formidable participant.
By defeating Jiri Reheka within the closing in Miami final Sunday (March 29), Sinner grew to become the primary participant in historical past to win tennis’s “Sunshine Double” (Indian Wells and Miami Masters 1000 tournaments) in the identical 12 months with out dropping a set.
In doing so, he prolonged his straight-set report on the Masters 1000 stage to 17 matches, that means 34 consecutive units. The earlier report was set by Novak Djokovic at age 24. It additionally means Sinner has gained three consecutive Masters 1000 tournaments (he additionally gained the Paris Masters late final 12 months) with out dropping a set, one thing that has by no means been accomplished earlier than.
That is a formidable quantity since Sinner misplaced to Novak Djokovic within the semi-finals of the Australian Open and was considered in disaster earlier this season, earlier than dropping to Jakub Mensik on the ATP 500 match in Doha in February.
Sinner’s profitable spring hardcourt swing coincided with a surge in wins for a few of Italy’s motorsport expertise. The Indian Wells closing was held on the identical day because the F1 Chinese language Grand Prix, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli taking Mercedes’ first Grand Prix victory. Sinner, an F1 ambassador, spoke for Antonelli in his champion speech after defeating Daniil Medvedev.
Two weeks later Antonelli gained once more, this time at Suzuka. A couple of hours later, Marco Bezzecchi gained the US MotoGP spherical on the Circuit of the Americas. Rain delays in Sinner’s Miami closing meant the match did not finish till after the MotoGP race in Texas, and this time each Antonelli and Bezzecchi have been talked about in messages written on the printed digital camera lenses, one thing of a convention at tennis’ massive TV matches.
The wins for Bezzecchi and Antonelli have been vital as they each moved into first place of their respective championships. Bezzecchi at the moment tops the MotoGP standings with a four-point lead over Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin, whereas Antonelli is 9 factors forward of Mercedes team-mate George Russell.
Particularly with Bezzecchi, he achieved a number of vital feats.
First, on the third lap he led in Austin, he recorded 104 consecutive laps in MotoGP, breaking the report of 103 laps set by Jorge Lorenzo in 2015.
By the top of the race, Bezzecchi had led 121 consecutive laps in MotoGP by main 20 laps, giving him his fifth straight MotoGP victory. Solely Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez, Mick Doohan, Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini have achieved such a protracted successful streak within the premier class.
Spectacular numbers, little question, however much more alarming are the numbers put up by one of many different Italians to win on Sunday, and the opposite Italian in query will not be first-time Moto3 winner Guido Pini.
Nicolo Brega gained all three races of the World Superbike race in Portimao, on the identical day as Pini and Bezzecchi gained in america, Antonelli in Japan and Sinner in Miami.
That is Brega’s second hat-trick victory within the two races main as much as the beginning of the 2026 season, and his third in WorldSBK. That is the workforce’s third consecutive win, following their win in all three races at Jerez final October.
Brega’s victory within the closing race at Estoril, a number of weeks earlier than Jerez final 12 months, prolonged his successful streak to 10 races.
Such numbers imply Brega can equal Toprak Razgatlioglu’s report of 13 consecutive wins within the subsequent spherical of the 2026 season, which can happen in Assen from April seventeenth to nineteenth. Razgatlioglu scored 13 factors for the second time in a row. He achieved it first in 2024 earlier than lacking six races with an damage at Magny-Cours, and once more in 2025 when he was competing for the title with Brega.
Ultimately, Razgatlioglu will win the 2025 crown for the third time and second 12 months in a row. Brega misplaced to a Turkish rider for the second 12 months in a row, however his accomplishments earned him a spot in MotoGP this season.
Since Razgatlioglu left the championship, Brega has by no means misplaced, and final 12 months there was just one race during which Brega was categorized as second or decrease. Every time he completed in second place, it was Razgatlioglu who beat him.
The race during which he didn’t end second was the Tremendous Pole race at Balaton Park, the place he opted for intermediate tires on a moist floor, however slicks turned out to be the proper alternative. Brega completed eleventh, his worst end in a World SBK, matching his end in Race 1 in Assen in 2024.
This implies Brega has completed first or second in each dry race he has accomplished for the reason that first race of final season, and has gained 37 occasions in a row. Nevertheless it goes additional, with Brega ending first or second within the final six races of 2024, making his report for consecutive high two races in dry climate now 43 races.
We have to return to Race 2 of Aragon 2024 (16 rounds, or 48 races in the past). The final time Brega completed decrease than second in a dry race was third. Race 2 at Aragón 2024 was gained by Alvaro Bautista, so it goes again as a lot time because it takes to seek out the final time Brega misplaced to a rider apart from Razgatlioglu, who has gained 78 World SBK races. This was Bautista’s 63rd World Superbike victory and his most up-to-date.
Bautista, in fact, was Brega’s teammate within the Ducati manufacturing unit workforce in 2024 and 2025. Brega joined the workforce in 2024 because the reigning Supersport Champion, however solely after the 2023 season, when Bautista gained 27 of 36 races and gained his final two consecutive titles.
Memorably, the Italian gained on his debut at Phillip Island, turning into the primary rider to take action since Bautista himself coached him at Phillip Island in 2019.
Bautista is the second-most successful rider in WorldSBK historical past with 63 wins, however he didn’t win any races accomplished by Brega in 2025 and solely 10 in 2024. However moreover, Bautista has by no means been extra certified than Brega of their two years as teammates. Bautista will probably be changed by Ducati Manufacturing facility Staff’s Iker Lecuona in 2026, and Brega has outscored Lecuona in each rounds to this point this season, with the Italian by no means dropping in qualifying to a teammate in 26 rounds on the WorldSBK.
The opposite factor about Brega’s type since mid-2024 is that it’s important to return even additional to seek out the final time he completed a race however did not end on the rostrum since he went unbeaten within the dry towards any rider apart from Razgatlioglu. Admittedly not way more, however one spherical again to the 2024 Superpole race in Cremona, when he was fourth. That race was additionally the final dry race during which he misplaced to a rider apart from Razgatlioglu, who was on a non-Ducati bike – on the time it was Alex Legal guidelines, who was using a Kawasaki on the time.
That Tremendous Pole race was 52 races in the past, or 17 rounds and 1 race. That was 18 months in the past. Throughout that point, 49 dry races have been held, and Brega accomplished 47 of them, however his two retirements have been final 12 months’s Assen Race 2 because of bike bother and final 12 months’s Misano Superpole race when he was overtaken by Axel Bassani.
Going again to the primary half of Brega’s rookie season, the variety of races during which he missed the rostrum begins to extend. There have been 10 races in 2024 the place Brega didn’t end within the high three, together with the Cremona Superpole race.
That is 11 out of 78 races (together with the Hungarian Superpole race), and contemplating he is had a whopping 5 DNFs in his WorldSBK profession (three of which have been because of technical points: Race 1 of Aragon in 2024, Superpole Race 2 of 2025, and Race 2 of Assen 2025), that is 11 of his 73 finishes. This provides him a 62 % likelihood of ending on the rostrum, or 85 %.
Of his 62 podiums, 26 have been race wins, that means he gained 36% of the races he accomplished in WorldSBK.
That is spectacular in itself, however it’s much more spectacular when you think about the period during which his top-flight profession started, with the BMW-powered Razgatlioglu successful 39 races alone prior to now two seasons.
Over the previous two seasons, Brega and Razgatlioglu have mixed to win 59 of 72 races, or 82 %, particularly final 12 months after they gained 36 to 35. With solely Brega left, it is maybe no marvel he began 2026 so effectively.
The truth that no rider has crushed Brega within the dry since Race 2 in Aragon in 2024, and that no rider apart from Razgatlioglu has crushed Brega on a non-Ducati bike for the reason that 2024 Cremona Superpole race implies that of all of the riders who’ve ridden WorldSBK bikes prior to now 18 months, just one has been in a position to beat Brega in regular situations. After all, not one of the riders on the present grid are that rider.
A transfer to MotoGP appears most certainly to finish Brega’s WorldSBK domination, however given Toprak Razgatlioglu’s still-scorching V4 Yamaha M1 is basically unable to attain factors, it appears extra seemingly {that a} MotoGP workforce will overtake the Italian.
When you don’t love Nicolo Brega successful WorldSBK races, you higher get used to the phrase Ricky Carmichael usually makes use of to troll.
