Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) had a rollercoaster day at the Autodrom Most as he finished in P2 overall after a crash in Free Practice 2 for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. The #11 started the Czech Round with the fastest time in Free Practice 1 and still finished second overall, despite his crash early in the afternoon session which cost him around 30 minutes of running time.

Bulega’s day got off to a good start in Free Practice 1 when he set the fastest time of the session with a 1’31.130s, more than two tenths clear of Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) in P2. The #11 did not complete a particularly long run in the first 45-minute session of the day, with the longest being five laps – although the caveat is that the session was interrupted by a red flag. In total, he completed 15 hot laps, with 10 in the 1’31s bracket. His fastest time of the session came on the last lap in FP1.

His FP2 looked to be going in much the same way. He took to the track slightly later than everyone else after it looked like rain might fall, but it stayed away bar a few drops. He completed just a handful of laps in the afternoon session after a crash at Turn 1 when he lost the front pushing hard through the chicane, but he also had a warning shot a few minutes before when, again pushing hard, ‘Bulegas’ had a big moment under braking at Turn 6 and ran through the gravel at the same point he had a big crash at last year. After his Turn 1 fall, Bulega was able to return his bike back to the pits, but he did not get any more laps under his belt.

That meant he completed, including in and out laps, 27 laps on Friday, while his rivals racked up considerably more miles. Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team), who topped the day’s running, completed 35 laps while Bulega’s teammate, Iker Lecuona, lapped the Most circuit 42 times on his way to a P4 finish. Lowes, despite his technical problem in FP1, finished with 38 laps to his name.

Reflecting on his Friday, Bulega remained upbeat despite the crash. He said: “It wasn’t so bad, honestly! In the morning, it wasn’t fantastic, but I had a better feeling with the bike. I started FP2 in a good way and I was improving. Unfortunately, I had a small crash, but I did a lot of damage to the bike. I had to stop and I did only six or seven laps during in FP2. Not a lot of work but I think we have enough data for tomorrow. I was just pushing hard to find the limit in some areas. Turns 6 and 7 is an area where I struggle a little bit to stop the bike. Like I said, we have good data for tomorrow and we have to improve.”

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