SBK Jerez, Practice 2: Bulega gives nothing away, Surra makes another strong impression

Ducati dominated in Andalusia, with Bulegas once again the fastest of all. Dixon and Bautista crashed, but neither rider was injured.

Nicolò Bulega ended Friday’s Superbike practice sessions at Jerez as the undisputed leader. The 2026 world champion set the fastest time in both FP1 and FP2. It is worth noting that track conditions did not improve in the afternoon, so not everyone posted faster times than in the morning. Bulega himself was no quicker in the second session: 1'38"155 compared with 1'38"309.

With just over 30 minutes remaining in the session, a red flag was shown after Jake Dixon crashed at Turn 9. The British rider’s Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP hit the air fence, and track action had to be halted so that section could be repaired. Fortunately, the former Moto2 rider was unhurt. The HRC garage had plenty of work to do repairing the bike, but Dixon was unable to return to the track.

Sam Lowes was second behind Bulega on the Panigale V4 R of the Elf Marc VDS team. The British rider delivered an excellent time attack at the end of the session, finishing just 150 thousandths of a second behind the Aruba.it Ducati team champion. The top six featured Ducati riders only: Iker Lecuona was third, followed by rookie Alberto Surra (Motocorsa), Lorenzo Baldassarri (Go Eleven) and Yari Montella (Barni Spark).

There were seven Panigale V4 Rs in the top 10. The other one belonged to Alvaro Bautista, who was ninth and crashed at Turn 9 late in FP2. The fastest non-Ducati was Miguel Oliveira’s BMW M 1000 RR, ahead of Axel Bassani’s Bimota KB998. Bassani was faster in the afternoon than his teammate Alex Lowes, who was tenth.

It was tough to see Yamaha struggling so badly at Jerez. Xavi Vierge was the team’s best performer in FP2 and the combined standings, finishing eleventh in the afternoon and tenth overall on this Friday in Spain’s SBK round. Remy Gardner, Twan Smits, Andrea Locatelli, Stefano Manzi and Mattia Rato occupied the bottom five places today. It was especially striking to see Loka down there: he turns 30 today and had hoped for a very different kind of day.

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