Nicolo Bulega impresses with late-race pace on MotoGP debut: “I was able to be quick”

After crashing out early in the Portimao Sprint, Nicolo Bulega finished his debut MotoGP weekend by scoring the final point for 15th in the grand prix.

While most riders set their fastest laps early on, Bulega clocked a best of 1m 39.391s on lap 23 of 25, as he fought back from an earlier mistake.

Only five riders were faster than the double WorldSBK title runner-up on that lap.

However, he ran out of time to challenge the group ahead, finishing at the tail of a five-rider battle for eleventh.

“Today was a better day,” said Bulega, who set the 14th fastest lap of the race, just 0.2s slower than the best by fellow GP25 rider Fabio di Giannantonio.

“Yesterday, in the Sprint, I made a rookie mistake and only completed a few laps.

“The goal for today was therefore to finish the race and gain as much experience as possible, while trying to understand the bike better and the many areas that make it so different from the Panigale.

"The first laps I was very calm, just trying to warm the front tyre to understand how to brake. I repeated in my mind all the race, ‘don't brake like Superbike, don't brake like Superbike’. 

“In the last six or seven laps, my pace wasn’t too bad; I was able to be quick and to close the gap to the riders ahead of me.

“But unfortunately, I made a mistake that cost me three or four seconds. I recovered and caught them again, but it was too late.

"Anyway, my best lap was two laps to go when the tyre was already finished. 

“The important thing was to finish the race and bring this experience with me to Valencia, and all in all, it went well.”

Factory team-mate Francesco Bagnaia crashed out of fourth place halfway through the grand prix.

The Valencia season finale, where Bulega will again replace injured world champion Marc Marquez, starts on Friday.