Finishing second behind Sam Lowes in both free practice sessions held so far at Portimao, Nicolò Bulega admitted he hasn’t quite found his rhythm yet. Not entirely comfortable on the bike, the Aruba team rider was unable to dominate the competition as he usually does—or as is now expected of him—in the absence of his main rival, Razgatlioglu.
“I wasn’t satisfied with either the morning or the afternoon. I don’t know why, but today the feeling wasn’t good. I struggled to ride the way I want to and as I usually do. Today I was at 90%. It was tough to improve and repeat my lap times because the feeling wasn’t great. For tomorrow, I hope to find the remaining 10%. Overall, I didn’t feel comfortable on the bike, but especially under braking—and in the final part of the braking zone, the bike felt twitchy, preventing me from placing the front wheel where I wanted. Because of this, I couldn’t get the bike to turn the way I wanted, so we need to find a solution for that,” he said in his analysis of the day.
Not everything is a total loss, though. “The pace wasn’t bad. Overall, I’m not worried, but I’m not happy with how it felt because when I ride, I want to have fun and smile under my helmet, whereas today I struggled, finding myself battling with the Panigale. So I hope to improve for tomorrow.”
Not being able to ride on the Portuguese track in recent weeks certainly didn’t help. “Missing the test puts us behind, but I’m sure we’ll find a solution, ” he said, remaining optimistic nonetheless.
In Australia, the Borgo Panigale manufacturer won hands down. That was undoubtedly due to a friendly track, but not only that, especially when looking at the bigger picture. “The V4 is indeed the best bike, but the manufacturer also has excellent riders. We’ll see how it goes during the season. Let’s say that Phillip Island is a different story, as the feeling there is very unique and the Ducati performs very well. Here in Portugal, we’ll be able to understand more. At the moment, or at least for today, I haven’t been able to replicate the feeling from 2025 when I battled with Toprak in all three races. Perhaps with the new bike, we’ll need to take a different approach in terms of setup at certain circuits,” he reflected.
Finally, when asked if, in the event of a win, he would dive into the pool as the Turkish rider did last year—still wearing his race suit—he replied: “If I won all three races, I might do the same. Not for just one.”