Nicolo Bulega picks out “man to beat” at Portimao WorldSBK: “This is his favourite track”

Factory Ducati rider Nicolo Bulega enters this weekend’s WorldSBK Portuguese Round off the back of a triple victory in Australia just over a month ago, but with clear ideas about where his biggest challenge is likely to come from at the first European race of 2025.

The current World Superbike championship leader crashed at a recent test in Portimao, but was unconcerned by its consequences.

“I feel good,” Bulega said, speaking to WorldSBK.com ahead of this weekend’s Portuguese Round.

“We did a test some days ago in Portimao, it was not so nice but not so bad. So, we have to improve for sure.

“I did also a high-speed crash but I’m good so no problem for this and I will try to improve during the weekend.”

He added: “The test was bad also for the weather conditions because we were not able to make a plan and follow it for all the test because the weather was quite strange.

“But, fortunately, for this weekend I see the weather and it looks much better, so I hope to have a nice weekend and try to improve every session.”

The Italian was clear about the rider he expects to be the reference this weekend, after Toprak Razgatlioglu topped the test two weeks ago.

“I think Toprak [Razgatlioglu] will be very good because I think this is his favourite track and also last year he was very strong here in Portimao,” the Italian said.

“During the test he was the man to beat and for sure we have to look at him here.

“But I want to say that in the test I was not able to push at 100 per cent. Here, I think we can start with a bit of data from the test and I think we can improve a lot.”