Nicolo Bulega sends Spanish WorldSBK warning: “We have some time to gain”

Nicolo Bulega is seeking improvements on his Ducati Panigale V4 R at the Spanish WorldSBK, despite appearing to be in a commanding position on Friday at Jerez.

The Italian rider enters the final round of the season with slim-at-best chances at the World Superbike title, and he said ahead of the weekend that his focus was on winning the races in Jerez.

The easiest way to go about that, of course, is to be faster than everyone else. On Friday, Bulega was exactly that, ending FP2 0.2 seconds clear of Sam Lowes and almost 0.4 seconds clear of points leader Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Despite his strong speed, which he also proved to be repeatable by setting multiple laps within a tenth or two of his best time, the Italian thinks he can improve further for Saturday.

“My day one wasn’t so bad, but honestly the feeling isn’t 100 per cent,” Nicolo Bulega told WorldSBK.com after FP2 in Jerez.

“We have some time to gain because I didn’t like my bike in some areas, so we can be faster and I hope we fix some setting problems for tomorrow. 

“We did quite a good job. I tried something different, also with tyres. I’m quite fast with every tyre. 

“I think if we can improve our bike for tomorrow, I can be very fast. 

“I don’t know if I’m the favourite, I think it’s too early to say because today’s very important for tomorrow.”

Although the timesheets paint a pretty picture for Bulega on Friday, he faced complications in FP2 due to a mechanical problem that was reported by the WorldSBK world feed broadcast to be a water leak. 

Ultimately it cost Bulega around 10 minutes of track time, but the Italian explained that it was almost worse.

“On the exit of turn one, I nearly had a highside with the throttle,” he said.

“I came back to the garage because Iannone said to me there was something he didn’t understand. 

“I didn’t feel any problems with the bike, so I came back to the garage, and it was a very small problem. 

“They fixed it and then I finished the session.”