Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) led teammate Alvaro Bautista in a factory Ducati 1-2 during Free Practice 1 for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field, with just 0.019s between the two riders. The Pirelli Portuguese Round kicked off with the 45-minute session as Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) completed the top three. Meanwhile, Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) did not set a lap time in FP1 after suffering a technical issue on his M 1000 RR machine at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve.

Bulega set a 1’40.977s to claim top spot ahead of Bautista with the #19 lapping 0.019s slower than the #11 at the head of the field in what was an incredibly close FP1. A late lap from Bassani moved him into P3 and just 0.069s away from top spot as he put his Bimota KB998 Rimini machine in the top three, demoting Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) into fourth as the Dutchman led BMW’s charge.

On the other side of the BMW box, Razgatlioglu didn’t set a lap time in FP1. On his first run, he ran wide at Turn 1 before returning to the box. Attempting to leave the pits for a second run, he got on and off his bike without leaving the pit lane before the bike was returned to the garage with the door shut. Speaking during FP1, Team Principal Shaun Muir said: “He’s got a small issue, we're not sure what it is at the moment, the guys are working on it now, but Toprak felt it right away. We went from test engines back to race engines. The last time we used this engine was Race 2 at Phillip Island. We're working on it now, we're pretty sure he won’t be able to return for the rest of this session, We'll take out time, work on the problem, find out what it is to get better prepared for the second session and just put it behind us.”

Rookie Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) was an impressive P5 after setting a 1’41.099s to secure fifth place for the #5, also finishing as the top Independent rider. Andrea Iannone (Team Pata GoEleven) was sixth but he lost a bit of time at the start of the session due to a rear brake issue, although the lost running didn’t appear to impact him when he did get back on track as he was straight on the pace of the front runners.

Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) claimed seventh place as both Bimota riders secured a spot in the top seven, with the #22 only two tenths away from Bulega’s pace setting time. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) was eighth, 0.260s down on the #11 out in front, but he had a relatively big gap to the rider behind. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) took ninth with Xavi Vierge (Honda HRC) completing the top ten.

Tito Rabat (Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) had a difficult start to his weekend after he crashed at Turn 8, with the Spanish rider able to walk away from the fall at the slow-speed right-hander. It was also tricky for Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team), who had technical issues in the first 15 minutes of the session, with the American slowly making his way back to the pits. Towards the end of the session, rookie Ryan Vickers (Motocorsa Racing) crashed at Turn 13 but he was able to re-join the session.

The top six from WorldSBK FP1, full results here:

1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) 1’40.977s

2. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.019s

3. Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +0.069s

4. Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +0.072s

5. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) +0.122s

6. Andrea Iannone (Team Pata Go Eleven) +0.208s

Don’t miss WorldSBK FP2 from 15:00 Local Time (UTC+0) using the WorldSBK VideoPass!