In near perfect conditions at the Cremona Circuit Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) topped the times on his Ducati.
The Italian rider enjoyed a strong start to the weekend to lead the way from championship rival Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team).
Free Practice Highlights
Bulega completed 39 laps at the 3.768km long circuit. The Ducati rider topped the times in both Free Practice sessions with a fastest time of 1’29.158.
Having missed last year’s Italian round at Cremona, Razgatlioglu spent the morning understanding the circuit. The Turkish rider notched up 35 laps today and ended the day just 0.3s slower than Bulega.
With high track temperatures, 40C in FP1 and almost 50C in FP2, the track surface was slick and played a role in numerous crashes. Danilo Petrucci ended the day third fastest but suffered a crash in Free Practice 1. He wasn’t alone with Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) suffering three crashes. The Spaniard ended the day eighth fastest but only completed 18 laps.
Iker Lecuona (Honda HRC) was the busiest rider on track with 41 laps and finished the day fourth fastest while Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) was one place further back.
Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) made his return to WorldSBK. The six times World Champion has sat on the sidelines through injury for the first three rounds and completed a full programme of 36 laps today but ended the sessions 21st fastest.
P1 – Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“I have a strong mentality from Assen because I was very fast there. I wanted to bring that positive feeling here to Cremona. I don’t really like this track because my riding style doesn’t suit it very well. I will always try to do my best and work well with the mechanics for the best result. Toprak is always very strong and I think this type of track suits his riding style really well. He’ll be fast. I also expect other riders to be competitive. Today, I felt quite good. My tyre consumption was good and my pace was strong. We need to keep improving because everyone will take a step forward tomorrow so we have to improve as well. We’ll see what happens.”
P2 – Toprak Razgatlıoglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team)
“We’re still working on the bike because we need a really good setup for the race. Today, we focused especially on improving rear grip. I didn’t originally plan a race simulation but with the hot conditions it became clear we needed more grip at the rear. We found something because in the last run I was able to set a good lap time. I felt more grip, which is positive, but we still need more. The others are very strong. Bulega was doing 1’29s quite easily. It’s looking a bit better for us because we’ve made some progress and hopefully we can find a bit more tomorrow. After missing this round last year I’m really enjoying riding this track.”
P3 – Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team)
“It’s a very important race and there are a lot of expectations after winning here last year. This is our home race, so let’s see how we feel tomorrow. I’m quite happy today despite a small crash this morning. There was no warning for the crash but the weather is very different compared to last year. It’s really hot now and there have been a lot of crashes already. It’ll be difficult to stay out of trouble because it’s very difficult to find rear traction. I’m quite calm and I’m not thinking about winning or anything like that. I just want to go into Superpole and try to be on the first or second row. Then we’ll play my cards in the race. There’s a lot of pressure on me but I’m surprising myself. I don’t want to make any mistakes tomorrow and if I can finish inside the top five, or get on the podium, that would be a great result.”
Combined Results after FP2
1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’29.158s
2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) 1’29.465s +0.307s
3. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) 1’29.537s +0.379s
4. Iker Lecuona (Honda HRC) 1’29.621s +0.463s
5. Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) 1’29.640s +0.482s
6. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) 1’29.669s +0.511s
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