Nicolo Bulega warns rivals after day one at Portimao: ‘We are even better than Jerez’

Nicolo Bulega was the only rider to break into the 1m 39s barrier on day one of the Portimao WorldSBK test, although Toprak Razgatlioglu was less than a tenth back.

While the margin to second place was nowhere near as big as Jerez, Bulega showed stronger race pace and felt like his performance was even better than Jerez, as a result. 

• Toprak Razgatlioglu claims BMW critics are wrong: ‘I feel the potential and we’re coming’ 

• 2024 World Superbike Test Portimao, Portugal - Day one Results

Despite concerns heading to Portimao given the challenges the Algarve circuit provides, Bulega was happy, telling WorldSBK.com: "Very good first day. I was a bit scared before starting this morning, this track is very difficult with this bike. It was difficult to be fast, so I'm really happy about the time today.

“This track is one of the most difficult this season and I needed to adapt a little bit because it's really different from Supersport.

“My pace was good in the end, so I'm happy about today. We focused on braking because there is a lot of hard braking here, and we need to improve in that area.

“During the day, we were able to improve, and we know in which direction to work tomorrow. We're already doing a great job, and I want to continue this way."

For today’s final day of running, Bulega said no major parts will be tested by Ducati but that continuing his adaptation to the Panigale V4 R remains the main objective.

Bulega said: “Nothing new, just something to adapt better to this bike in this circuit. I think we are doing a really great job and want to continue in this way.

“I think, here we are even better than Jerez. In Jerez I did a very fast lap with the qualifying tyre but today, I tried to concentrate more on the race tyre and my pace was better than Jerez. We improved a little bit.”