After an impressive MotoGP debut performance at Portimao’s Portuguese GP, Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) maintained his penultimate round pace, again finishing in the points in Sunday’s Grand Prix at Valencia. While Marc Marquez was present at the Spanish circuit, he remains unfit from his Indonesian GP shoulder injury, opening up the seat atop his factory Ducati bike for 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship runner-up Bulega to get his second taste of MotoGP machinery.

His Valencian GP didn’t start with the same impressive FP1 pace on Friday that he enjoyed in Portugal. He kicked off the weekend with a time slotting him 23^rd fastest out of the field’s 24 riders. His focus was on continuing to familiarise himself with the prototype bike ahead of the weekend’s subsequent events, as well as reacquaint himself with the “very technical” Valencian circuit, which he had not ridden at in four years.

On his Friday first impressions of the Valencian circuit in MotoGP and his hopes for the weekend to come, Bulega said: “Honestly, today was difficult. It’s been four years since I’ve raced here; my last time was in 2021 when I was in Moto2. So, I had to get the feeling back with this very technical track, especially in MotoGP, where you don’t have very much time from one corner to another. I just need to ride more. For sure, there are a lot of things I want to improve, but my only goals for now are to continue to ride and familiarise myself with the bike.”

The Practice session on Friday afternoon wasn’t quite so outstanding from a results standpoint for ‘Bulegas’, who, despite being just 1.3s off of P1, finished in 24^th to miss the opportunity to punch his ticket directly into Q2.  Opening Saturday’s action, Bulega’s speed improved to under a second off Ai Ogura in P1, earning him P18 in FP2; however, in the subsequent Q1, the Italian fell to P12, culminating in a 22nd place grid position for the Sprint and Grand Prix events. In the Sprint, Bulega took off like lightning in a bottle, climbing up five positions to P17 by the end of Lap 2. He overtook inbound 2026 WorldSBK rider Miguel Oliveira for P16 on Lap 4 and held on to that position for the rest of the contest. Sunday’s Grand Prix main event was the weekend’s highlight for Bulega. Starting again from P22, the race featured several crashes and penalties applied, such as to Johann Zarco, who braked late and collided with Bulega’s teammate Pecco Bagnaia, sending him sprawling for his fifth consecutive Grand Prix DNF. Bulega, however, weathered the storm to finish P15 for the second consecutive time. With Bagnaia’s retirement, it means the factory Ducati team have only scored two points in full-length races since Marquez’s injury – both from Bulega.

While he had a weekend’s more experience with the package than he had going into the Portuguese GP last weekend, a key factor Bulega had pointed out during and before the weekend was the lack of familiarity that he had in Valencia compared to the familiar Portimao. Despite the new layout, Bulega was proud of the experience he had gathered for himself and now prepares for a MotoGP test at the same venue on Tuesday, November 18^th, where he will be joined by his old rival Toprak Razgatlioglu as he takes to the track for his first official test with his new Prima Pramac Yamaha Racing Team.

On Sunday, reflecting on his Valencian Grand Prix weekend, Bulega said: “This morning the feeling in Warm Up was very good, but in the race, I was feeling a bit worse, I was finding it difficult to find the rear grip. It’s experience in any case; I’ll take another point. It’s not incredible, but honestly, the feeling today wasn’t incredible. I’ll try to make a step in the test on Tuesday. Summing up my feelings over my last two weekends, honestly, it wasn’t bad; I just need more time on the bike. I need to improve a bit everywhere. I need to run more laps with the bike and better understand the tyres, both new and used, because I’m not using them to their full potential in qualifying. I’ll talk with the team about an outline for the test on Tuesday. Most importantly for me will be to gain more experience with the bike.”

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