Nicolo Bulega “in his own league” at Australian WorldSBK

The Australian WorldSBK could be sewn up already after the first day of practice, with Nicolo Bulega holding a strong advantage over the field and Alex Lowes saying the Italian is “in his own league”.

Bulega topped all four sessions at the Phillip Island World Superbike test and continued that form into the race weekend itself by going fastest in both FP1 and FP2. Both sessions saw Bulega set multiple laps faster than the best lap of the second-fastest rider and, although his gap was trimmed to 0.253 seconds in the afternoon from 0.6 seconds in the morning session, the Ducati rider was still half-a-second clear of the field in the combined times.

In the opinion of Alex Lowes, Bulega is almost unmatchable in dry conditions this weekend, which only continues the trend of recent years.

“It looks like, also last year and the year before as a rookie, he was more or less in his own league at this track,” Lowes told WorldSBK.com.

“He’s riding fantastic, the bike works well – it’s difficult to beat him here but you never know.”

Despite being far behind Bulega, Lowes is hopeful about his chances in the races of getting on the podium, having been able to set a decent pace in FP2 despite running many laps with a setup change he wasn’t entirely comfortable with.

“Good Friday for us, honestly,” he said.

“In FP2 we tried this new tyre Pirelli has brought for the weekend, also we tried a change on the bike [that] was maybe not the best, but I wanted to put some laps on this new tyre to understand for the races which tyre we’re going to use and it felt quite good. 

“I found myself in quite a lot of traffic, so that was good practice for the race: I was trying to pass a few guys, understand where I was fast, understand maybe where we are not so fast, so it was good to ride on-track with a few people.”

Lowes also had a crash at the end of the session at turn four.

“At the end of the session, I got some clear track and pushing a bit, I was trying to use the tyre,” he explained. “I was a bit fast into turn four and had a little crash, but picked the bike up. 

“Honestly, my pace was pretty strong, every time I had a clear lap I felt quite competitive. 

“I think Nicolo Bulega’s a good step in front of a group of riders that will be battling for the podium. We’re not too far away, it’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow.”

Sam Lowes: “I needed a better FP2” to challenge Bulega

Sam Lowes was in agreement with his brother about the dominance of Bulega this weekend.

The Italian himself thinks both of them could be among his rivals for victory in Race 1 on Saturday – which could be the only dry race of the weekend with rain potentially arriving on Sunday – but the Marc VDS rider thinks he needed to make progress in FP2 to have a chance of challenging his factory stablemate.

“I think to make that step to go with him [Bulega] I needed a better FP2,” said Lowes.

“He has a minimum of three or four tenths on me, I would say, in pace, maybe a tiny bit more in the middle. So, I think for the first race it will be difficult, but you never know in racing. 

“If we can find a little bit tonight, if I can qualify well, go with him…

“I’ve been riding alone a lot. The last sector he’s making a couple of tenths on me, so half the gap I lose is in the last sector. So, if I got the start and was behind him, I can learn a bit and maybe pull me along. Let’s wait and see.”

One of the key setbacks for Lowes in FP2 was a crash a turn one that came only a couple of minutes after the session resumed from a red flag for wildlife on-track.

Lowes explained that the crash came from a change in riding approach.

“It was quite a long way around the corner and I just low-sided,” he said. “A little bit eager on the gas; I stopped the bike a little bit better than other laps so I was pointing a bit further around. 

“I’ve sort of been working on that a little bit, stopping the bike a bit better and carrying the speed through the corner, and just overdid it in turn one. 

“So, disappointed with that, but the slight positive, I guess, from it is that we are working on that direction of riding rather than rushing in too much. 

“So, I am getting there – it’s not so many laps we’ve done in 2026 so it’s a work in progress.”