Marco Bezzecchi
Nicolo Bulega set the fastest time on Ducati’s 2027 bike in a private 850cc test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but he was slower than Pedro Acosta’s 2026 pole lap.
The MotoGP paddock has broken up for the summer break, but test teams and riders are all still busy as the five manufacturers look ahead to next year’s regulatory changes. MotoGP is due to introduce a raft of new rules, headlined by the reduction in engine capacity to 850cc.
MotoGP is also banning all ride height and holeshot devices, as well as implementing wider restrictions on aerodynamics. So, the manufacturers have all sought to hold private tests in addition to the Pirelli tyre tests at Brno back in June and the Red Bull Ring come September.
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Nicolo Bulega’s 850cc lap of Barcelona was 1.1s slower than Pedro Acosta’s 2026 pole time
KTM became the first team to test their 850cc prototype last December, shortly followed by Honda. Ducati only started testing their 850cc bike this April with Michele Pirro, and Bulega has now taken over its development alongside his attempt to win the World Superbike title.
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Bulega featured in a private 850cc test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday and Thursday this week as Ducati joined KTM, Aprilia and Honda at the home of the Catalan Grand Prix. As it was a private test, no official race riders appeared during either of the days.
Being a private test, there are also no official lap times, but GPOne suggests that Bulega was fastest with a 1:39.232 aboard Ducati’s prototype 850cc bike for 2027. KTM’s test rider Dani Pedrosa set the second-best time, but he was 0.766s off Bulega’s rumoured time, ahead of Honda tester Takaaki Nakagami (0.826s off) and Aprilia tester Lorenzo Savadori (0.940s off).
Ducati test rider Bulega had the advantage of racing with Pirelli tyres in the World Superbike Championship this year, ahead of the Italian brand replacing Michelin as MotoGP’s sole tyre provider next season and the French brand heading in the opposite direction to Superbikes.
But even Bulega’s deeper understanding of racing on Pirelli tyres was not enough for him to negate the slower lap times that MotoGP’s 2027 regulations are set to yield. Bulega’s fastest lap on Ducati’s 850cc bike in Barcelona was 1.164 seconds slower than the 1:38.068 lap that KTM’s Acosta set for pole position for the 2026 Catalan GP when MotoGP was there in May.
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KTM saw Acosta take pole for the 2026 Catalan GP by 0.233s over VR46’s Franco Morbidelli using a year-old Ducati GP25. Alex Marquez of Gresini was the fastest rider during qualifying for the 2026 Catalan GP aboard the Ducati GP26, as he secured P3 with a 1:38.342 lap time.
Bulega’s reported 1:39.232 aboard Ducati’s prototype 850cc bike would have only seen him qualify P19 for the 2026 Catalan GP. Just Yamaha’s Alex Rins (1:39.280), LCR Honda’s Diogo Moreira (1:39.324), Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez (1:39.876) and Pramac ace Toprak Razgatlioglu (1:42.945) set worse lap times throughout qualifying for the Catalan Grand Prix.
More comparably, potentially, Bulega’s fastest lap time with Ducati’s 850cc bike would have also only put him P15 during the timed pre-qualifying practice session at the end of the first day at the Catalan GP. Acosta also topped practice in May, with a 1:38.710 on his KTM RC16.
Aprilia ace Marco Bezzecchi set the fastest lap during the 850cc test at Brno in June, as the Italian recorded a rumoured 1:53.9 to edge Trackhouse pilot Raul Fernandez by one tenth of a second. Fermin Aldeguer was the fastest Ducati rider at the Brno test with a 1:54 lap time.
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