Jerez Test: Bulega puts Pol Espargaró back in his place with the Ducati 850

Twenty-four hours after having to chase in the rain, Nicolò Bulega put things back in order. On the second and final day of testing at Jerez, reserved for MotoGP test riders on the new 850cc bikes, the newly crowned Superbike World Champion set the fastest time, clocking 1’39”253 on the Ducati GP27. Lorenzo Savadori’s Aprilia was next, 316 thousandths of a second behind, while Pol Espargaró, Wednesday’s fastest rider, had to settle for third.

The KTM test rider is an excellent benchmark, because in his MotoGP appearances this season—naturally on the 1000cc RC16—he has proved exceptionally quick. As always, testing offers little in the way of definitive conclusions, especially at Jerez and above all at the start of a new era featuring a change in engine capacity and a new exclusive tyre supplier. Still, seeing Nicolò at the top of the timesheets makes for a striking sight.

The track conditions made all the difference compared with the first day. The rain stopped falling in the afternoon, and the lap times came down accordingly, finally giving the riders a chance to push. Bulega seized the opportunity to set Thursday’s benchmark, turning the previous day’s order on its head. In the wet, Espargaró had been eight tenths quicker, as we reported in Rainy Jerez test: Pol Espargaró gets the better of Bulega, the SBK champion eight tenths back.

Curiously, the gap stayed the same, but the order was reversed: this time, KTM’s Spanish rider finished around eight tenths off the pace, dropping behind Savadori as well.

The Noale factory’s test rider was not focused solely on lap times. The rider from Romagna completed more than 50 laps of the Andalusian circuit, putting in a substantial shift that left him just over three tenths behind the Ducati. An encouraging sign for Aprilia at this stage in the development of the next-generation bikes.

Michele Pirro was also on track, working to a different programme: developing the Ducati V4 ahead of 2027. The rider from Apulia posted a best time of 1’43”012, three seconds and seven tenths slower than Bulega’s 850, but outright performance was not the focus of his work.

With Jerez now in the books, the test riders have completed their final outing before the official test in Valencia in early December, where the 850s will return to the track for another step towards MotoGP’s new era.

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