WorldSBK: Bulega maintains his form as Ducati lead the way at Misano
WorldSBK: The second half of the WorldSBK season kicks off with the Emilia Romagna Round at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
The Italian venue has been one of the most iconic venues in the history of the championship and on Friday, with near perfect conditions, it was Nicolo Bulega who continued his strong season by topping the times.
Bulega led the way for Aruba.it Racing – Ducati with a time of 1’32.235. The championship leader completed 41 laps today and was comfortably the pace setter for much of the day. Bulega finished the day with a 12 lap stint where his consistency was clear to see with almost every lap within half a second of each other.
Once again Iker Lecuona was the nearest challenger to his teammate. The Spaniard crashed at Turn 8 in the afternoon session but it was a slow speed crash. The slow right hander, usually attacked at 80 kmp/h, led to minimal damage and Lecuona rejoined the action and set his personal best time immediately.
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The home riders enjoyed their day aboard Independent Ducati’s with Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team), Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team Goeleven) all ending the day inside the top eight times.
The bimota duo of Axel Bassaniel Bassani and Alex Lowes ended the day fifth and seventh fastest to join Xavi Vierge (Pata Maxus Yamaha) as the only non Ducati runners inside the top ten positions.
Miguel Oliveira returned to action following his injury layoff for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. The Portuguese rookie completed 36 laps of 4.226km circuit as he ended the day 17th fastest.
P1 – Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“This morning wasn’t very good because the feeling with the bike wasn’t what I wanted. We tried something with the setup but it wasn’t the right direction for the setting. This afternoon we went back to our base setting and it improved a lot. I enjoyed it much more with our standard setting and the feeling was what I needed. I was able to have a good pace. There is a bit more pressure this weekend because we are racing at home but it’s the pressure that gives you extra motivation. It’s good pressure to be here.”
P2 – Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“It was a bit tricky this morning and the bike was difficult to ride. Coming here after being on the MotoGP bike last weekend meant that I maybe arrived with a different feeling to usual. We needed to change the bike a little compared to the test here but I felt comfortable. I was fast and very consistent. We had an issue with one tyre that didn’t perform as expected and we need to understand what happened because the difference to Nicolo was too big. It will be tricky to fight with Nicolo because I know that he is the best here and he’s racing at home but overall we’re happy because we’re close.”
P3 – Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team)
“We tested here three weeks ago and I felt good on the bike. We started this morning with the setup we used during the test and it worked well. This afternoon we did a long run to understand how the tyres work because every year it’s difficult to manage the tyre here. This track puts a lot of stress on both the front and rear tyres and in these conditions it’s always hard to understand it all. It was important to see how the bike works for my riding style and whether the setup we used was the right one. I don’t know if tomorrow will be different, but we’ll try to do our best.”
Combined Results after FP2
1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’32.235s
2. Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.166s
3. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) +0.576s
4. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) +0.669s
5. Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) +0.768s
6. Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) +0.779s
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