The Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya hosted two days of official Dorna testing during which Nicolò Bulega and Alvaro Bautista did some fruitful work ahead of next weekend’s Pirelli Catalunya Round.
Here are the highlights from Montmeló.
- DAY 1 Results
P1 N. Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’40.304s – 72 laps completed
P2 T. Razgatlioglu (BMW Motorrad) +0.464s
P3 A. Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.725s – 103 laps completed
P4 S. Lowes (Ducati) +0.752s
P5 J. Rea (Yamaha) +1.351s
Nicolò Bulega confirmed that he is at ease with the Ducati Panigale V4R and he tested different tyre solutions, setting very competitive lap times both on race pace and time attack.
Impressive work for Alvaro Bautista, who completed 103 laps on the first day of testing; like his team-mate, he focused on tyre choice ahead of the second round of the 2024 WorldSBK season.
- DAY 2 Results
P1 N. Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’40.172s
P2 T. Razgatlioglu (BMW Motorrad) +0.027s
P3 D. Petrucci (Ducati) +0.429s
P4 A. Iannone (Ducati) +0.490s
P5 J. Rea (Yamaha) +0.600s
P17 A. Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +1.399s
The circuit got slippery due to a light shower overnight; once dried by the sun, the riders were able to get back on their bikes late in the morning.
Nicolò Bulega also finished Day 2 at the top of the timesheet, setting a new circuit record.
For Alvaro Bautista some more difficulties compared to Day 1 and a crash without consequences in the time attack at the end of the session did not allow him to improve his chrono.
Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #11)
“We are on the right path. Together with the team, we have done a very effective job as always. We’ve worked hard on tyre choice and setup and I think the indications we got will be beneficial ahead of next weekend. The feeling with the bike was very good and this is confirmed by both the race pace and the time attack times. It is clear that we still have work to do to fix details that could take us a step forward, but the result of these tests is undoubtedly positive”.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #1)
“On the one hand, I am really happy because I feel that my physical condition is returning to its highest level. At the same time, however, today things didn’t go as I hoped because I couldn’t make progress in terms of feeling. I had a little bit of difficulty in finding the right grip to allow me to push to the maximum of my possibilities. We will study the data over the next few days to understand what happened and I’m sure we will be back in Barcelona next Friday with the solution”.
