Bulega leads, Razgatlioglu falls in opening Phillip Island WorldSBK practice
Nicolo Bulega fastest in Free Practice 1 for the 2025 Australian World Superbike round.
Nicolo Bulega continued his dominant testing form during a delayed opening practice at the 2025 Phillip Island World Superbike round.
Oil dropped during the previous WorldSSP practice caused the 45-minute session to start 20-minutes later than planned.
When the action did get underway, in bright and sunny conditions, Bulega was soon on top of the timesheets, courtesy of a searing ten-lap opening run.
That distance equals the race distance before the mandatory pit stop in place for this weekend’s races.
Content with his morning work, which included a session best of 1m 28.922s, Bulega then pitted and completed only two more laps.
That lap initially put the title runner-up 0.574s clear of Andrea Iannone, although the Go Eleven rider reduced the deficit to 0.367s later in the session.
Bulega’s Aruba team-mate Alvaro Bautista and Barni’s Danilo Petrucci completed the all-Panigale top four.
Dominique Aegerter made a late progress for best of the rest in fifth for Yamaha, followed by reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu in sixth (+0.857s).
The BMW star’s session was interrupted by a small fall at the Turn 4 hairpin with 15 minutes remaining.
Razgatlioglu jumped straight to his feet but, still sore from his testing highside, required marshals to lift the bike.
Bimota’s Alex Lowes took seventh despite losing 10km/h on the straight, with Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha), Axel Bassani (Bimota) and twin brother Sam Lowes (Ducati) completing the top ten.
FP2 starts at 4pm.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
