2026 Hungarian WorldSBK Friday Practice LIVE: Bulega looks to remain unbeaten

Live coverage of the Friday practice sessions at the 2026 Hungarian WorldSBK from Balaton Park. FP1 is due to start at 10:20 local time, with FP2 coming up this afternoon at 15:00.

Nicolo Bulega enters this weekend leading the riders' standings by 69 points over his factory Ducati teammate, Iker Lecuona. Bulega has won all nine races this year and Lecuona has finished second in the last six, but the Spaniard is hopeful of taking the fight to Bulega this weekend on a track he feels suits his riding style more than the championship leader's.

Bulega was second here in both dry races last year, although he finished 11th in the Superpole Race when he chose intermediate tyres in slightly damp and patchy conditions. A victory in tomorrow's Race 1 will take him clear of Toprak Razgatlioglu on the all-time list for consecutive wins in World Superbike; currently they're both tied on 13. Bulega said yesterday that he is not concerned by the prospect of breaking the record in the context of his greater objective: to win the title.

Sam Lowes was third in all three races at Assen two weeks ago and arrives in Balaton third in the standings. He was on the podium twice in Hungary last year, and qualified on the front row, so it could once again be the Marc VDS rider who is best-placed to take the race to the two factory Ducatis, or at least the second of them.

Alex Lowes was generally the closest non-Ducati rider to the leaders in the Netherlands last time out, although he complained of grip issues in Race 2 that saw him finish 11th. The Bimota is best suited to long corners and carrying momentum rather than the kind of stop-start track characteristic that is true of Balaton.

BMW won all three races at Balaton last year in the hands of the aforementioned Razgatlioglu, results that are a source of encouragement to Miguel Oliveira this weekend, he says, although his objective is to be in the top-five, not challenging for wins.

There is still no Jake Dixon this weekend. The British rider is now replaced by Yuki Kunii, who rode Moto2 last year after winning the ASB1000 title in ARRC in 2024, and this year has returned to Asia and the All-Japan Road Racing series to race the JSB1000 class in which he finished third at round one.