Eighth-place finish for Francesco Bagnaia and the Ducati Lenovo Team in Portimão’s Sprint. A crash for Bulega

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The Ducati Lenovo Team tackled the twenty-first Sprint of the season at Portimão’s Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. Francesco Bagnaia was eighth at the flag, while Nicolò Bulega crashed out in the first half of the encounter.

From fourth on the grid, Bagnaia lost one position at turn one. After defending fifth place from Di Giannantonio past halfway distance, Bagnaia then struggled in the closing stages and was ultimately eighth. Bulega, who qualified eighteenth, crashed unhurt during lap four.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will resume proceedings tomorrow morning at 9:40 local time (GMT) for the warm up, followed by the Grand Prix of Portugal, which will be contested over a 25-lap distance from 13:00.

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 8th
“The Sprint didn’t go as we’d hoped. I wore the tyres out a lot in the early laps and, in the end, I got passed at the exit of the last turn. It was a wrong evaluation on my side and we need to do some more work ahead of the race. Today’s set-up was good in the fast corners, but I was lacking a bit of rear grip. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make the most of FP2 so we continued with this configuration. At the end, the grip was non-existent: I tried to manage it throughout the Sprint, but unsuccessfully. Tomorrow’s warm up will be very important to improve the situation and we’ll do our best in the race.”

Nicolò Bulega (#11 Ducati Lenovo Team) – DNF
“Today I didn’t manage to put everything together, but there were some positive aspects. Under braking is where I struggle the most, because the tyre specs are completely the opposite of what I’m used to. This morning, during qualifying, I lost six tenths at the last turn because I made a bit of a mess with the ride-height device; it’s a pity because it would have been a decent lap time. I struggled at the start of the race and then I tried to catch Franco (Morbidelli); I was on a good lap, but unfortunately I ended up crashing. I’m sorry for the team, who have to do some extra work. I need to reset and start again from scratch.”