Nicolo Bulega searching for “another direction” at Portuguese WorldSBK

Nicolo Bulega will try to find “another direction” to work in after struggling to find a setup he liked on his Ducati Panigale V4 R on Friday at the Portuguese WorldSBK.

Bulega arrived in Portugal after dominating the Australian Round in February and with a 20-point points lead in the World Superbike riders’ standings.

But on Friday he topped neither session, beaten by Sam Lowes in both.

The Italian said after FP2 in Portugal that he had “struggled” in practice and that he could not push as he wanted.

“The position is not so bad but, honestly, the feeling was not very good today,” Nicolo Bulega told WorldSBK.com after Friday’s practice sessions.

“I struggled a little bit to find a good setup with the bike, and now I’m at 90 per cent; I cannot push like I want. 

“I just tried to ride and improve, but today, honestly, it was a bit difficult. So, we have to try to improve for tomorrow and find a solution, but I’m sure that we will find it.”

Bulega added that he can’t break as he wants to, and that he wants to find “another direction” for his bike setup on Saturday.

“The worst thing now is the braking because here in Portimao there are a lot of parts where you brake hard and in some areas I struggle to have the same feeling as last year,” he said.

“So, maybe we have to adjust a little bit the setting because the bike is different from last year. We have to work in maybe another direction.”

The championship leader was pleased enough with his race pace at the end of the day, having lapped consistently in the low-1m40s throughout FP2.

“I think my race pace was quite good,” he said.

“But I did it not in a comfortable mode, so I hope to improve tomorrow and then we will see.

“But for sure there are some guys that are fast.”

Bulega went on to state that Sam Lowes, Alex Lowes, and Iker Lecuona are the three riders he considers his closest rivals at the moment.

The Italian also said on Thursday that he was expecting to struggle more in Portugal than Australia, where he won all three races comfortably, but the reality of Friday was worse than he’d hoped.

“Honestly, I hoped that the feeling was a bit better, but anyway it’s just the first day and we will try to improve tomorrow,” he said.