Friday brought the curtain down on two days of testing for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship at Cremona, Italy. One rider who featured heavily on Friday was Nicolo Bulega, with the Factory Ducati rider putting together a time of 1’29.223s during the afternoon of Friday’s session. Whilst this was ultimately enough to secure sixth place in the combined standings, Bulega was far from buoyant.

When asked how he felt testing went, the #11 rider said: “I feel not so bad, but also not so good. I didn’t have my 100% feeling. I was missing something in the front. We have to work on it to try and improve this part of the bike. I want to stay focused on the next test, and then I hope to have a better bike/setup for the next time we test here in Cremona.” Interestingly, Bulega attended a track day at Cremona the week before on a stock bike. When asked if there was much difference between the stock bike and the Superbike, the Italian said: “Yes, because this bike is a bit faster. With this bike, the circuit seems a bit smaller. We have to adapt, because this is maybe the smallest circuit that I ride on with this bike.”

Switching gears, Bulega discussed the upcoming Misano test. Following Assen, where he struggled (and coincidentally, it was the first track with no prior testing), Nicolo was more positive about the prospect of being able to test at Misano, saying: “Next week, we have a very important test. It will also be my home race. We are very lucky to have this test before the race…I will do my job as always, to try to improve the feeling of the bike and to have fun.”

Lastly, Bulega discussed having fans present during the Cremona testing, especially the positive impact that they had over the course of testing at Cremona. The #11 rider said: “Today was like a Sunday race with a lot of people. It’s always nice to have fans. In Italy, we have a lot of support, so it’s nice!”

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