Day 1 of the Official Test for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field saw Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) continue to show his growth as a rider atop his team’s Ducati Panigale V4 R, blazing ahead of the rest of the grid into P1 on the day. The Italian rider, now entering his sophomore year in WorldSBK shone in the first of the two testing days in Australia, just shy of half a second clear of Andrea Iannone (Team Go Eleven) in P2 and reigning Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in third.

In Bulega’s short WorldSBK career, he has already distinguished himself at Phillip Island, as last year he set track records for the fastest lap recorded in a race at the circuit with a scorching 1’28.564s. On Day 1 of testing in Australia, Bulega again put on a show and while these are good signs for the rider’s odds this weekend, the Italian rider is keeping a measured approach.

“It’s early to say, we only did one day across these two sessions. It’s difficult to say, [where he will place] but I can say I have a good feeling. We only did one pit stop practice today, but it went well, my mechanics did a good job. Everyone will improve a lot so we need to keep improving but I am happy,” said Bulega.

One of this off season’s big storylines had been how, due to rainy weather limiting time on-track across Jerez’s and Portimao’s testing events, many teams felt a bit behind schedule in their list of items to test ahead of the season opener. Changes to rules regarding fuel flow stand to affect the entire grid, and adjustments to the bike’s setup posed hurdles that Bulega and his team were looking forward to dealing with across these Australian test days.

Reviewing his test plan, ‘Bulegas’ said: “We just tried to do some normal testing; this winter we couldn’t test much due to the weather conditions. I just tried to use my standard bike and do a lot of laps without touching many things in order to understand where I can improve as a rider, not just to improve the bike. I think we have a good level, but we have to try to improve more and put down more laps tomorrow.”

Don’t miss a moment of Nicolo Bulega’s sophomore campaign with the WorldSBK VideoPass!