Nicolò Bulega makes his debut in the World Superbike Championship this weekend and promises to be one of the protagonists in the opening round at Phillip Island. The rider from Aruba.it Ducati was the second fastest in the combined times of the two free practice sessions, trailing leader Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) by just 59 milliseconds.
Reflecting on his Friday, the Italian said: ‘It was a strange and difficult day, because there was a lot of wind and was difficult because especially in the exit of the corners sometimes you feel the front light because of the wind and it wasn’t easy to go on full throttle. But were the same conditions for everybody, so I tried to improve my feeling also with the wind and I’m happy because compared with FP1 I did a big improvement with my bike and my team’.
After the windy conditions experienced on Friday, Bulega hopes for better weather on Saturday and Sunday. Regarding his expectations for results, he stated: ‘I don’t know. I don’t think too much about the weekend, just try to have fun like I did all the pre-season. If I can push and have a good feeling with my bike until Sunday, I think I can be happy’.
In a competitive field, the Supersport world champion believes that tyre management will be a key and potentially differentiating factor: ‘I think everybody is really close, but I think the difference we can do is from the fourth/fifth lap until the tenth when we have to change the tyres. I think who is a bit better to don’t destroy the tyres has an advantage’.