Bulega remains on top in free practice at Jerez de la Frontera. Bautista twelfth in combined sessions.

Friday’s free practice for the Pirelli Spanish Round ended with Nicolò Bulega in first place (finishing at the top of both FP1 and FP2) and Álvaro Bautista in twelfth place, unable to find the best feeling.

The Italian rider got off to a good start in the morning, immediately setting what would be the best time in the combined standings with a chrono of 1'38.587. He also immediately took the lead in FP2, but halfway through the session, he had to deal with a technical issue that forced him to stop. Bulega still managed to get his Panigale V4R back to the pits, thanks to the team, who did a great job. They put him in a position to return to the track 10 minutes from the end with new tyres, and he even managed to improve on his time from the first run.

Álvaro Bautista, on the other hand, encountered a few more difficulties and was unable to improve on his FP1 time in the afternoon, partly due to the very high temperatures, which made the track less performant.  

Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #11)
"Things went pretty well today, although I have to admit that I'm not 100% happy with the feeling I had on my bike. I still can't ride the way I want to: there are many small details that we can fix, and I'm sure that tomorrow we can take another step forward". 

Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #19)
“It was a really difficult Friday. Right from FP1, I couldn't find a good feeling. We tried to work on the setup in the afternoon, and I have to say that there was some improvement, even though it wasn't reflected in the lap times. I still feel the bike is a bit nervous, and that doesn't allow me to find consistency. We have to work with the team, but I'm sure we can find a solution that will enable me to perform better".