Nicolò Bulega was the leader of the first day of testing in the Superbike World Championship at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, repeating what he did last week in Jerez. Several MotoGP riders were on track with road bikes, including the 2022 and 2023 champion, Francesco Bagnaia, and the six-time champion of the premier class, Marc Márquez.
In the afternoon, Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) set the pace, being the only one of the day to lap in 1m39s (1m39.913s). Thus, the Italian surpassed Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW) by 94 thousandths – the Turkish rider was leading with five hours to go. Jonathan Rea (Pata Yamaha) finished third, 0.148s behind, with Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha) closing the top five ahead of rookie Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS/Ducati).
About a week before the start of MotoGP testing, several riders from the premier class took the opportunity to train on production bikes, but not all of them appear in the timing table. Bagnaia (Ducati) was the strongest, in 24th place considering only the best times of each rider (some were classified with more than one bike). Luca Marini (Monster Energy Honda) was the closest, 0.261s behind, with Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac/Ducati) in third.
Valentino Rossi was also present, taking the opportunity to return to the track with top two-wheel riders. Il Dottore was one of the lowest ranked, completing 49 laps. Álex and Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) were also present, but there is no timing information. For Marc, it was his debut at the controls of the Panigale V4 S.
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