SBK Jerez, FP1: Nicolo Bulega in a league of his own – five Ducatis lead the way

All week now, Jerez – in the southernmost tip of Spain, just 130 kilometres from Gibraltar – has been enjoying glorious autumn weather with temperatures reaching up to 30 degrees Celsius in the afternoon; however, by Sunday it is set to cool down by 10 degrees and the likelihood of rain is set to rise sharply.

At the start of the first 45-minute Superbike practice session on Friday at 10.35 am, the track temperature was 25 degrees. After 8 minutes, world champion Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) set the first notable fastest time of 1:38.155, putting him more than 4/10 of a second ahead of the runner-up. By way of comparison: the Italian has held the pole position record since 2025 with a time of 1:36.629, whilst the Ducati ace set the fastest race lap in the sprint that same year in 1:37.659.

At the halfway stage, the top eight were within 0.7 seconds of one another; only the Bimota duo of Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani were able to keep up with the Ducati pack. The entire practice session plodded along at a leisurely pace; even towards the end, we saw no rush to set fast times on new rear tyres.

No one came close to Bulega’s best time; the 49-time race winner, who celebrates his 27th birthday on 16 October, remained a quarter of a second ahead of second-placed Sam Lowes, followed by World Championship runner-up Iker Lecuona, third-placed Yari Montella, Alberto Surra, Alex Lowes, Lorenzo Baldassarri and Bassani in the top eight.

From ninth place onwards came Xavier Vierge as the top Yamaha rider, Miguel Oliveira as BMW’s number one, two-time champion Alvaro Bautista, Honda ace Jake Dixon and Kawasaki’s lone rider Garrett Gerloff.

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