2026 Dutch WorldSBK Friday Practice Reaction: Bulega sweeps day one

Petrucci has crashed at the final chicane, ripped the front fairing off the bike as it tumbled through the gravel.

He was chasing Montella, and just lost the front under braking. He seems okay enough.

Small improvement from Bulega at the front, down to a 1m33.952s now leaving him 0.256s clear of Lecuona.

And only moments later it's a crash for Oliveira. He'll miss out on the last 12 minutes of this session as a result of that.

Looked like a lot of front chatter right at the apex of turn 10.

He's on his way back to the paddock on a scooter now, seems to be fine physically.

Oliveira gets into the top-10 now having been down in 14th, but he's still 1.189s behind Bulega - a far cry from his Portimao performance at the moment, but it's still early days for the WorldSBK rookie.

With 15 minutes to go, the top-10 as it stands looks like:

1. Bulega
2. Lecuona
3. S. Lowes
4. Petrucci
5. Baldassarri
6. Bautista
7. A. Lowes
8. Mackenzie
9. Bassani
10. Vierge

Danilo Petrucci is the only non-Ducati rider in the top-six at the moment aboard the BMW. Of course, he was on the podium here last year, beating Toprak Razgatlioglu in the battle for third in Race 1.

Tough start for Gerloff, down in 21st at the moment and he's just ran off the track at turn 12, the first of the fast left-handers in the final sector.

Mistake from Sam Lowes at the Ramshoek. Stays on it, fortunately - you don't have small crashes there! 

Just a run off into the asphalt on the outside of the track on this occasion for the Marc VDS rider, who has been bumped down to third now as Lecuona has got within 0.25s of his teammate.

A glance a little further down the time sheets and you come to a wildcard rider in the form of Dutchman Twan Smits in P12. A solid start for the home rider in what is his first WorldSBK round. He's done a couple of the preseason tests this winter but didn't show edge-of-the-top-10 speed, so a good start from the 24-year-old aboard the Team Apreco Yamaha.

For reference, Bulega's lap just there is only about half-a-second behind the race lap record he set in Race 1 last year, and about 1.4s behind the Superpole time set by Sam Lowes a year ago with the SCQ tyre.

1m33.958s for Bulega is the first sub-1m34s lap of the weekend and puts him almost 0.5s clear of Sam Lowes.

All-Ducati top-three now with Lecuona up to third.

Tarran Mackenzie up to fifth with his latest lap, 0.6s off the top and one place ahead of Alvaro Bautista.

The Dutch Round was Mackenzie's best last year when he was on the MIE Honda, before switching to MGM Ducati in Balaton. He was in the points in all three races, including a ninth in the Superpole Race.

Times continuing to scroll, Bulega down now to a 1m34.232s. Lecuona was on for a low-1m34s as well on his most recent lap but botched a pass on Stefano Manzi at the chicane and lost 0.7s as a result of that.

Sam Lowes back to the top now on a 1m34.428, 0.028s clear of Bulega now. Alex Lowes up to third and into the 1m34s as well.

Bulega now to the top, 1m34.456s puts him over 0.3s clear in first.

Decent start for both Bimota and Ducati, to be fair - Sam Lowes fastest at the moment and the first rider into the 1m34s; Axel Bassani in second on the leading Bimota with a 1m35.016s.

Both Ducati and Bimota have been hit with 0.5kg/h fuel flow penalties this weekend.

Bimota now have a maximum fuel flow of 45.5kg/h, while Ducati's has dropped to 44kg/h.

Pirelli has brought a new tyre this weekend, with its new F0298 development rear option that is a variant of the SC0.

The SCX is the softest rear tyre available this weekend, meaning no SCQ and no possibility to run the SCX in the long races, although the SCX was the favoured choice during last year's full distance races.

Conditions remain dry in Assen. 14C of air temperature and 17C of track temperature ahead of FP1, which is now only a couple of minutes away.

Jake Dixon's injury recovery continues since the wrist fractures he picked up in preseason testing at Phillip Island in February. 

Jonathan Rea replaced him in Portimao, scoring a best result of 12th in Race 2, and he is back again this weekend for his second outing since becoming Honda's official WorldSBK test rider.

The six-time champion says he is better prepared now than he was three weeks ago in Portugal, where afterwards he admitted his body was not fully recovered from surgeries he'd had in the off-season.

Bulega picked out a couple of riders yesterday when speaking to WorldSBK.com who he has his eye on this weekend, and they were the two other riders who finished on the podium at Portimao three weeks ago.

Lecuona, of course, is one of those - the Spaniard took his first WorldSBK podium here in 2022 when Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu crashed out together at turn two while battling for the lead.

Oliveira, on the other hand, has one Assen win to his name, in the 2015 Moto3 race, and he acknowledged on Thursday that the Dutch layout is not necessarily one that favours the BMW M1000 RR based on its past form, although Razgatlioglu did win here back in 2024.

It feels like a while now since anyone other than Nicolo Bulega entered a WorldSBK round as the favourite. You're probably looking back to Estoril last year and even then it was not a huge shock to see him beat Toprak Razgatlioglu in Race 2.

The Estoril Superpole Race last year is still the last time Bulega was beaten in WorldSBK, his winning run now standing at 10 races. Three more this weekend and he matches the record of 13 set by Razgatlioglu in 2024 and 2025 - although he says that's not something he cares too much about.

56 points is his margin coming into this weekend over his teammate Iker Lecuona, who was second in all three races last time out in Portimao.

FP1 is over for the Sportbike class in Assen. Loris Veneman ends fastest on that 1m42.792s he set earlier on. Jeffrey Buis and Benat Fernandez complete the top-three.

WorldSBK FP1 up next in just under 15 minutes.