Double MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia says Nicolo Bulega \u201cdidn\u2019t need much advice\u201d during his debut at the Portuguese Grand Prix with Ducati.<\/p>\n
The twice World Superbike runner-up has been drafted in by Ducati<\/a> for the final two rounds of the 2025 campaign to deputise for the injured Marc Marquez<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nicolo Bulega<\/a> was previously a member of the VR46 Academy alongside Pecco Bagnaia<\/a> and was a veteran of 99 grands prix starts in Moto3 and Moto2 ahead of his Portuguese Grand Prix MotoGP debut.<\/p>\n The Italian qualified in 18th, missing a spot in Q2 by a second, before crashing out in the sprint.<\/p>\n He said this was a result of his lack of understanding of the Michelin front tyre, which requires a much different approach to braking compared to the Pirelli\u2019s he is used to in World Superbikes.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n In the grand prix, Bulega came through to score his first MotoGP points in 15th.<\/p>\n Bagnaia heaped praise on Bulega\u2019s efforts, and is expecting him to make another step this weekend in Valencia.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t need too much advice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very strong from the start, and he was just unlucky [in the sprint] to crash.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe he lost a bit of confidence.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cBut finishing the first race in the points is a good result, so he can be very happy. In Valencia, he can do another step in front.\u201d<\/p>\n Bulega\u2019s pace during the grand prix was impressive, with the No.11 only around 0.8s per lap slower than team-mate Bagnaia to the point that the latter crashed on lap 11 of 25.<\/p>\n LapsPB63 (H\/M)NB11 (H\/M)21m38.915s1m40.352s31m38.804s1m39.762s41m38.872s1m39.845s51m39.119s1m39.979s61m39.155s1m39.88s71m39.029s1m39.872s81m39.35s1m39.846s91m39.23s1m40.066s101m39.042s1m39.865sAverage pace1m39.057s1m39.941sDifference-0.884s<\/p>\n Bulega\u2019s turn as Marquez\u2019s replacement comes as he gets set to spearhead the development of Ducati\u2019s 2027 bike next year.<\/p>\n Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi noted during the Portuguese Grand Prix that the final two races, plus the Valencia test, were a good opportunity for Bulega to gain some data on the current bike to better compare when developing the 2027 machine.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Double MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia says Nicolo Bulega \u201cdidn\u2019t need much advice\u201d during his debut at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,17197,7607,806,805,803,804,6909,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-277442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ducati","11":"tag-francesco-bagnaia","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-nicolo-bulega","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}