Your python 3 one isnt the fastest python 3 solution, it’s this one which uses pcre2

The slower program is an example from that website of a regex program which does not " just calls out to a very fast c library (pcre2)…".

  from re import sub, findall

https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html

pcre2 is not —

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

Here's some of a comment from _operator.c

"This module exports a set of functions implemented in C corresponding\n\ to the intrinsic operators of Python. For example, operator.add(x, y)\n\ is equivalent to the expression x+y."

Why wouldn't you expect that CPython regex would "ultimately" be written in C?