SBK Cremona: Practice 1 — Bulega starts with a crash; can Lecuona delay the celebration?

The toughest races are the ones where everything seems set. Everyone is expecting Nicolò Bulega’s big World Championship celebration, but the Cremona weekend starts with a slip. A trivial loss of grip: the Ducati rider was back on his feet immediately and without a scratch. He was chasing Iker Lecuona’s benchmark, the only teammate who could postpone the verdict.

The Superbike dominator spent the entire session hunting the Spaniard, never managing to edge ahead. And to think that even in this shakedown session he lapped incredibly fast, 1'28"278, just a whisker off the official record of the small Lombardy circuit, namely 1'27"980 set by Bulega in last year’s triumphant edition, when he slapped down Toprak Razgatlioglu three times. So it’s a flying Lecuona who’s getting ready to welcome Franco Morbidelli into the box, in the VR46 swap with Bulega destined for MotoGP.

Bulega is coming off the Mugello mishap, where last week, testing MotoGP Ducati 850 development with Pirelli tires, he came down hard at Arrabbiata 2. He got away with it, but prudently decided to skip last Monday’s top-class tests at the Red Bull Ring. It would have been a crucial step in preparing for his next adventure, but participation was canceled to avoid risks and not jeopardize the Superbike World Championship assault. The FP1 slide obviously doesn’t change the picture: Nicolò will start here as the clear favorite. He doesn’t have to win at all costs, but celebrations are sweeter from the top step of the podium.

Bulega draws all the attention also because behind him it’s the usual routine, namely a platoon of six Ducatis in single file with the excellent Lorenzo Baldassarri leading the Independents’ line. The fact is well-established and it couldn’t be otherwise, given that teams turned a few laps here just days ago, between one downpour and the next. Balda leads Sam Lowes, Yari Montella, and Alberto Surra. The rider from Campania has never particularly liked this track, while Surra is hunting his first podium. The competition is fierce, but Motocorsa’s young rider is growing fast. The “best of the rest” is the usual Bimota Rimini of Alex Lowes, ahead of Garrett Gerloff’s Kawasaki Ninja: again, nothing new under the mild morning sun of Lombardy.

Nicolò Bulega will be mathematically World Champion as early as the end of Race 1 at Cremona with a combination of results that’s fairly hard to achieve. The 26-year-old future MotoGP ace with VR46 would need to gain 15 points on his teammate Iker Lecuona, who, however, has made a mistake only in the Donington Superpole. Otherwise, despite being beaten 26 times out of 27, he’s been extremely consistent, minimizing the damage. Therefore, barring twists, we’ll talk about it again on Sunday, with sights set on the Superpole Race.

-> Follow us on Instagram: @Corsedimoto