Marco Bezzecchi
Nicolo Bulega surpassed expectations in his first MotoGP session for Ducati at the Portuguese Grand Prix. The debutant was 14th fastest, ahead of teammate Francesco Bagnaia.
Bulega is replacing Marc Marquez, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with injury. The World Superbikes runner-up tested the Ducati GP25 in Jerez last week to prepare.
Bulega was a couple of seconds off Bagnaia’s times at the Spanish GP, but he was quicker than the two-time MotoGP champion in his first official session.
The caveat is that this wasn’t a competitive outing, and it’s still early in the weekend. But still, very few in the MotoGP paddock would have expected Bulega to lead Bagnaia in any session at Portimao.
MotoGP fans think Luigi Dall’Igna is ‘fed up’ with Francesco Bagnaia
After the times were set, the cameras panned to Ducati general manager Luigi Dall’Igna glancing at the times in the garage. MotoGP fans thought his emotions were etched all over his face.
“You can tell this is painful for him,” one of them wrote, while another added that ‘he looks fed up with it’.
A fellow Reddit user said ‘at this point, he’s thinking #GoHome’, a play on Bagnaia’s slogan, #GoFree. One even went as far as to say that the team boss looks ‘dead inside’.
Other comments included ‘How did #11 outpace the #63?’ and ‘is this the biggest downfall of a rider over a season?’. Bagnaia is fighting for third in the championship, which Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali has called an acceptable outcome.
Nicolo Bulega has already proven his Portuguese Grand Prix prediction wrong
Even though there was nothing riding on this session, TNT Sports pundit Neil Hodgson says it will be a fresh blow to Bagnaia’s morale: “You’d feel embarrassed. That’s not acceptable, is it?”
The more positive spin is that Bulega can take huge encouragement from the first 45 minutes. If he wants to race in MotoGP in 2027, this represents his first real audition, although Ducati will naturally show patience.
Speaking on Thursday, Bulega said he was ‘sure’ to have a ‘difficult weekend’, but he was immediately competitive. This was the first time he’d featured in a Grand Prix weekend since the end of the 2021 Moto2 season.
Hodgson also pointed out that Bulega has gone in a different direction to Bagnaia by prioritising the 2025 aerodynamic package.
He said: “Bulega is on this year’s aero, which has been a big thing for Pecco – he’s not got the latest aero, he’s stayed with the old aero. Marc’s got the latest aero.”
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