Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) looked like he would be the rider to beat on Friday at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve before he was usurped by reigning Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in FP2. Despite this, Bulega showed consistency in abundance across both practice sessions as he looks to continue his winning run in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, even if it was Razgatlioglu who held the advantage on the timesheets at the early stage of the Pirelli Portuguese Round.

In FP1, Bulega completed two stints as he set a best time of 1’40.977s. That came in his first run which was seven laps long and it was his only time in the 1’40s during the 45-minute FP1. His second stint was longer but again, very consistent. In his 11 laps in the second run, the #11 was only outside of the 1’41s once when he set a 1’42.155s, with the other lap times ranging from a 1’41.046s to a 1’41.664s.

It was similar in FP2 as well, even if he fell to second in the standings. His first run in FP2 was eight laps long and it started off with a 1’41.346s before improving to a 1’40.620s on Lap 4 before times gradually slowed down; his slowest lap in that run was a 1’40.767s. He didn’t do a stint longer than eight laps in FP2, with his next two runs totalling seven representative times. Every single one was in the 1’40s, with the fastest a 1’40.294s – his fastest time of the day – and the slowest a 1’40.645s.

2024 runner-up discussed his pace on Friday, saying: “Honestly, from the test, we made a very big step because at the test, I didn’t have a very good feeling. In FP1, we made a step, and we made another in FP2 so we’re getting closer. Toprak is still very fast. I’m happy because we’re closer. I think, if we can make another step, we can try to be even closer and that’s the target.”

Despite his incredible speed and consistency, Bulega was playing down his chances of victory across the weekend’s races as he cited Razgatlioglu as the rider to beat. It’s perhaps no surprise given ‘El Turco’ secured a hat-trick at Portimao in 2024 and, in a recent test at the same venue, was the fastest rider by quite some margin.

On the battle he expects to come, the Ducati rider, who’s feeling under the weather stated: “Toprak is the man to beat here at Portimao! He always has something more. We made a big step and in two sessions, we’re getting close. We’re working hard and, for sure, we’ll try to do another step. Now there is Toprak and me, and then for third place there’s a bit more of a battle. WorldSBK is always strange because it’s easy to see a big group, so it’s not easy to predict a race. I want to make another step and then we’ll see during the rest of the weekend.”

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